


Vandal of the Heart

by AdinESmith



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Comedy, Delinquent x Class President, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Neighbors, a bit of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27685301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdinESmith/pseuds/AdinESmith
Summary: Renjun is the perfect student: class president, top grades, clean record. The only bothers in his life: the bathroom vandalisms, the snobby bully, and the delinquent who lives next door. As Renjun navigates through these issues, he finds one to be less of a problem and more of a guide. Will the unlikely friendship of the Class President and Infamous Delinquent result in a powerful duo, or a disastrous event?
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Donghyuck | Haechan
Comments: 5
Kudos: 131





	Vandal of the Heart

“Congratulations to Huang Renjun, who has been elected as class president for the fourth year in a row, and has been nominated as our student council president!” A round of applause erupts from the circle of students currently facing Renjun. He thanks them, sitting at the head of the long ovular table. Light streams down behind him from the large windows. He takes in this moment, a pride he’s been working hard for. Doyoung had assured Renjun he’d get the position once the older went off to college, but even when this school year started, he never stopped gathering votes and campaigning. Now, Renjun can be in charge of all school events and implement the changes he wants.

Many students think the student council are just figureheads, nominated by the students so the school board can make it look like there’s peer input. Renjun knows it’s not like that; Doyoung taught him how to make actual progress through this position, and it all starts now. 

Renjun speaks to them, “Thank you all. I am honored to have this position and start the new school year together. Let’s work hard to make this year enjoyable for everyone.” After everyone finishes their clapping, the meeting commences. First, the general facts are covered: new additions to the school, notable changes in course adjustments, plans throughout the years. Then they go over the achievements made by the student council in the past few years, acknowledging all the hard work the previous council president, Doyoung, put into making the school better.

Everyone goes around and introduces themselves as well, and Renjun smiles as his friends, Chenle and Sungchan, say their introductions. He was finally able to convince them to join the student council this year, and even though Renjun wasn’t able to bring Jeno in as well, at least he has these two. Last year most of his friends graduated and went off to college: Doyoung, Taeyong, Winwin, Mark, Lucas, Taeil, Kun. 

“So, President Renjun,” speaks Choi Daewon, the most annoying person on the council. Nobody here wants him in the council, but his parents practically fund half the school so he can slip by the rules and ignore voting majorities easily. Influential parents, bratty child; everyone’s favorite. Daewon’s tone is a bit mocking, but Renjun avoids his antics like always, instead nodding to let him speak. “Which problems are you planning on tackling first?”

Renjun clears his throat. “Usually we save coming up with solutions until the second meeting, but since you asked, I plan on us tackling the low festival attendance, high priced school books, the bathroom problem... shall I go on?”

Daewon gives a smile, which Renjun can tell is fake, but it fools everyone else. “No, you answered my question, but I noticed you didn’t have any mention of the delinquents?” Suddenly everyone turns their eyes and attention straight to Renjun, eager to hear his response. 

The problem of the delinquents in their school is less of a problem to Renjun and more of an annoyance. There is a small gang notorious in the town, but only a few students in it attend Sooman High School. Sure, they tend to skip classes, don’t wear their uniforms, and occasionally disrupt class, but Renjun always left the administration to take care of them, since there’s not much he can do. It’s a bit frustrating, but in the past few years, Renjun has learned to ignore the issue; he will live his life and they will live theirs. 

“Regarding the delinquents, I don’t think it’s necessary for our council to take action against them. All we can do this year is encourage more participation and find ways to enforce rules better.” Renjun speaks carefully, and when he’s finished many of the student council members nod their heads. They understand the struggle, of course none of them approve of the delinquents’ actions, but they have no power to force them to do anything. 

The meeting ends exactly forty five minutes after it starts. The first one is always a bit shorter, but Renjun will prepare the rest of the meetings to be an hour long. He gathers his stack of papers neatly and smoothes out the blazer of his uniform. 

Chenle and Sungchan come over once everyone has exited. 

“That was so long,” Chenle complains, “seriously, I think I got cramps from sitting too long.”

“Today’s meeting was shorter than usual, so you better get used to it,” Renjun tells him. Chenle pouts. 

“Renjun, who’s that Daewon guy? He was practically glaring at you the entire time.” Sungchan asks. Renjun sighs and they all leave the room, ready to walk home. 

“He’s an asshole, always grumpy for some reason. Just ignore him and your life will be three thousand times better.”

“Good, I was planning on doing that already.”

Chenle, still not having moved on from how boring he found the meeting, complains again, “I can’t believe I let you drag me into joining the student council!”

Renjun pinches Chenle’s cheek and the younger squirms away, screeching in disapproval. “You’ll thank me later in the year when I get them to add your favorite soda to the lunch options.”

Chenle crosses his arms. “Whatever. You better, otherwise I’m quitting.” 

The three continue on their way home, with Renjun splitting off from the other two at one point. He breathes in the afternoon air, the sunset making a beautifully painted sky. Renjun stops and snaps a quick photo of the sky, continuing to stare up at it as he approaches home. When Renjun finally reaches his house, he stops in front of the gate. It reaches up high, with brick walls extending from either side and wrapping around both his house and his neighbors. Renjun takes a deep breath, preparing to enter the empty home.

“Congrats on getting that position.”

Renjun jumps at the voice, and the person laughs at his shocked reaction. Renjun already knows who it is before he looks over, so he isn’t surprised when he finds himself facing Lee Haechan. 

Haechan, the leader of the gang in town, most infamous delinquent at Sooman High School, and, unfortunately, Renjun’s next door neighbor. He’s always outside at this hour, leaned against the wall or out with his gang. 

Renjun doesn’t say anything to him. The delinquent boy’s hair is long now with faded purple highlights at the tips. He remembers seeing Haechan out on the streets a couple times over the summer with his hair fully purple. It shined under the sun then. 

It’s not unusual for them to run into one another; being neighbors and all they see each other quite frequently in passing in the morning and afternoon. Haechan tries to tease him a lot. He’s always done that since they were kids, but Renjun ignores him every time. They lead very different lives, the only thing they have in common is their street and school. 

While they may not fit in each other’s lives, Renjun is able to see more of Haechan than anyone else in the school. He’s watched from his window the hot summer days where Haechan hauled in groceries with his Dad, or scolded his siblings when they ran towards the street. Renjun knows he isn’t as horrible and defiant as everyone describes him to be. The real Haechan is someone Renjun may not know, but he also isn’t what the rumors say. 

Renjun turns the key and swings the gate open, locking it behind him. Haechan is looking up at the sky, knowing he won’t get a response, but Renjun takes a second to glance at him up and down before fully turning away. He’s wearing the same black leather jacket he always wears, black pants too with chains and leather straps hanging from them. Renjun shakes his head: he’ll never understand why this guy chooses to wear all that instead of the perfectly fine school uniform.

“See you at school,” Haechan mumbles, then Renjun hears the gate next door open and slam shut. 

❀❀❀

Renjun is peacefully sitting in class, taking notes and concentrating on the teacher. He’s always hyper-focused during lessons, making sure to never miss a single detail that could cost him a point on a test or quiz. Renjun is hastily copying a bullet point down when the classroom door slides open. Haechan arrives twenty minutes late to class, wearing the same leather black outfit as yesterday. 

“Lee Haechan, you’re late,” the teacher grumbles. 

Haechan bows in apology, “I’m sorry ma’am.” The teacher shakes her head and he walks to the back of the class, his platform boots tapping against the floor. As he situates in his seat, which is about two behind Renjun, the teacher continues. Despite his distraction, she dives right back in, so Renjun doesn’t have time to glare back at Haechan, not yet at least. 

Once the lecture ends and they’re given a bit of time to work on the problems, Renjun swivels his head around and stares directly at Haechan. He’s apathetically gazing at the ground, spinning a pencil in his hand and clearly not paying attention. Haechan’s posture is horrible too, slouched back in his seat with his long legs reaching far out. When his defiant classmate finally looks up, he receives a disapproving glare from Renjun. Haechan shrugs at him, then suddenly smirks and winks.

Renjun immediately spins his head back around. He rolls his eyes and gets back to his work, ignoring Haechan for the rest of class. 

When lunch time rolls around, Renjun grabs his food quickly then heads for his usual table. It’s located in the middle of the lunchroom, and he can already see Chenle and Jeno seated, laughing at something together. He starts to walk over but a familiar voice calls out to him, stopping him in his tracks. 

“Hey Renjun,” Haechan says. Renjun slowly turns to see the boy at the table directly next to him. A couple others are at the table, who Renjun knows to be Jisung, Yangyang, Shotaro, and Jaemin. They’re all in Haechan’s gang. “Why don’t you sit with us today?” Haechan narrows his eyes, giving the same smirk he flashed earlier. 

“I’m okay,” Renjun responds, faking a smile, “my friends are already waiting for me.”

“Your loss,” Haechan sighs, “it’s a lot more fun over here. Less strict. Maybe another time then?”

“You wish,” Renjun says. He continues on his way, not wanting to bicker with Haechan any longer. When he plops down next to Jeno, the boy gives him a strange look.

“What did Haechan want?” 

Renjun shrugs. “He asked if I wanted to sit with him.”

“Why?” Chenle joins, stabbing some of the food on his plate and stuffing it in his mouth. 

“Beats me. He just likes to tease me, but obviously I said no.”

“Maybe you should have said yes,” Sungchan cuts in, sitting across from them with his food. “Wouldn’t that have been the sight for everyone, the class president and famous delinquent being all buddy-buddy together?” Renjun glares at him while Chenle snickers. 

“I’m never going to give in to his little tricks,” Renjun assures. Another person slides across from them, next to Sungchan who immediately shuffles away from the unwanted guest. Renjun’s smile drops as Daewon faces him. 

“You know associating with that… criminal isn’t a good image for the student council president,” Daewon says. Renjun always hopes, just maybe, one day he’ll go without having to witness Daewon’s stupidity. 

Chenle speaks up first, “He’s not a criminal, Daewon, and so what if Renjun talks to him? It’s not like we do the same things as he and his friends do, so what’s the problem?”

Daewon scoffs, “Um, in case you haven’t noticed, he runs around town vandalizing things and being disruptive with his followers. You’d be just as bad as them by association.” The presence of Daewon subtly upsets everyone; the words that come from his mouth are never pleasant, which makes the sight of him anger Renjun. 

“We don’t even know what they do around town,” Renjun snaps back, defending Haechan for some reason. It’s not that he is doing it to protect his neighbor, necessarily, but more to preserve the fact they really don’t know what his gang does. They could be smashing things in alleys or picking flowers. Daewon always seems to accuse them of doing things he’s never seen. 

“Whatever,” Daewon says spitefully, knowing he’s lost. A few more people join the table and luckily, Daewon ignores Renjun for the rest of lunch. Renjun’s not even sure why he decided to sit so close to them today. The table consists of all the people on the student council and a few others, but normally Daewon avoids them at all costs, and Renjun tries to sit away from him as far as possible. He never wanted Chenle, Sungchan, and Jeno to meet him, but he knew it would be unavoidable the moment he convinced them to join the council. 

The rest of lunch is relatively peaceful, and Renjun laughs at the jokes Sungchan makes and Chenle’s complaining about how his teachers are so boring. A couple times he peers back to the table where Haechan is, or was. Not too long into the lunch block, when Renjun glances over, Haechan has left, an empty space where he was before. 

❀❀❀

As the second student council meeting starts, Renjun can barely contain the excitement behind his smile. He calmly lets the vice president pass out and read the checklist Renjun created earlier in the week. 

Renjun starts, “Okay, starting today we will need to start the planning for the first festival of the school year. As we all know, in the past few years we’ve had complaints about how long it runs and students wanting to opt out due to its length. This year we need to come up with a way to reduce the run time. Anyone have any ideas before I say mine?”

A couple students give a few suggestions: cut the number of activities, make some of the events shorter, put a time limit on each student's performance. All are good, but Renjun already knows they cannot interfere with the parts the school board plans. He, of course, came up with a solution long ago, but patiently waits for everyone to speak before sharing it. 

“I see, all good ideas! There’s a problem with us not being able to go against what the staff orders to happen at festivals, however there is one area I know we can change. The student performances. Dahyun, you said we should have a time limit for each act?”

Dahyun nods. “Yes, if we have a max number of minutes each student can be on stage, then we won’t have overly long acts.”

Renjun ponders, just before he speaks though, Sungchan says his thoughts for him. “We can’t do that, I’m sure there would be protests. Especially for the students who always perform songs.” Dahyun frowns and opens her mouth, but then closes it. 

“How about this,” Renjun offers, “when we do our act checks to make sure they’re appropriate, we have a limited number of slots this year. We can cut down performances, so the ones who always state what they’re doing but don’t show us, won’t get in.” The majority of the council nods, clearly agreeing with Renjun. 

“Won’t they get upset this way too? I mean, we’re basically controlling who gets in and who doesn’t?” Chenle opposes Renjun, who can only widen his eyes at his friend. 

“Any way we do it, there’s bound to be complaints, but if we make too short of a time limit, many of the people who would have put in a lot of practice will see they can’t perform what they want, and then not try out at all,” Renjun explains. Chenle seems to think for a few seconds before nodding, and everyone else follows. 

They discuss the details of the process for a few more minutes before moving onto the rest of the planning. Creating a division strategy, planning activities, decorations. Everything for now is just a rough idea but Renjun channels everyone’s ideas perfectly to satisfy the entire council. 

After the hour is over, Chenle and Sungchan head out first, letting Renjun know they’ll be waiting outside. It’s cold in the meeting room so they want the sun to warm them up while they wait. Renjun carefully organizes his papers like he always does and sighs in satisfaction. Another student council meeting gone smoothly. Renjun will always be grateful to Doyoung for taking him under his wing the past few years and teaching him how to properly lead.

As Renjun heads out, he spots where Chenle and Sungchan are waiting for him: a third figure looms over them. Renjun picks up his pace, recognizing that figure’s outline. As he gets closer, he can hear the sickening voice of Daewon. 

“You only have a spot in there because-”

“What are you guys talking about?” Renjun interrupts, knowing exactly what Daewon was doing: bullying his friends. 

“Nothing,” Daewon mumbles, “I have to get going.” He kicks some pebbles as he walks away and stuffs his hand into his pockets. 

Renjun hurriedly turns to Chenle and Sungchan. “What did he say to you guys? Was he being mean? I can report him-”

“Relax, Renjun,” Chenle reassures him, “Anything he said was too stupid to bother us. Let’s get going. I’m hungry and my mom said she’s cooking something good tonight.” Chenle swings his arm around Renjun and the other around Sungchan, forcing them all to walk away. 

They repeat the same path the three always take home, with Renjun separating from the other two and slowly climbing up a short hill to his house. This time, Renjun spots him immediately, slumped against the brick wall holding something in his hand. Its shape resembles a stick similar to a cigarette, but Renjun knows Haechan doesn’t smoke. He’s never seen him do it, ever. 

Renjun pulls out his keys but doesn’t escape Haechan’s greeting as he’s inserting them. 

“You want one?” 

“What?” Renjun questions. Haechan holds up a box and shakes it, the box is a red color and Renjun realizes it’s just pepero. In the delinquent’s other hand is one of the chocolate covered sticks, which he bites down on. 

“Hurry up and decide, this is my last box so I could change my mind at any second.”

“Uh,” Renjun pauses, unable to function after Haechan’s offer. He doesn’t seem to be teasing him or playing any prank, so maybe it’s okay. Plus, Renjun likes pepero. “Sure.” Haechan fumbles into the tiny box and pulls out two sticks, handing them over to Renjun. 

Renjun takes them and stares down at them hesitantly. 

“Don’t worry, I didn’t poison them. If you want proof I can bite into it.” Haechan suddenly makes a move towards the pepero Renjun is currently holding. He bites into the air as Renjun snaps them away. 

“You’re crazy,” Renjun says while shaking his head. Haechan pouts and falls back on the wall again, shoving another pepero stick in his mouth. Having had enough of the boy, Renjun turns the key and enters his gate, not walking slow enough to hear if Haechan goes inside or not. 

❀❀❀

On the weekend, Renjun doesn’t have too much work but he still planned to study for a good amount of time. He feels his grades always need improving, so most weekends he doesn’t go out. 

Today, though, Renjun’s friends are determined to bring him out from the hole that is his room. They blow up his phone with texts and missed calls; eventually, he lets Chenle, Jeno, and Sungchan drag him out to the arcade. Chenle and Sungchan happily skip ahead, excited for a day of playing games and such. Chenle has every possible gaming device at his house but he enjoys going to the arcade more. It’s less lonely there than his large, usually empty house. 

“Don’t run too fast or you’ll trip!” Renjun calls out to the younger ones. They pretend not to hear and speed up anyways. Reaching the arcade before Jeno and Renjun and not stopping to wait, they disappear behind the entrance. Jeno holds the door open for Renjun and the two enter, faced with the dark atmosphere lit up by thousands of screens. Different sound effects come from every direction and a few of the games are already occupied by kids and teenagers. For a weekend, though, it’s relatively empty. 

“Over here!” Chenle yells from around the corner, already heading to grab some playing coins. He has a handful when Jeno and Renjun catch up and Chenle shoves several piles into everyone’s hands. He uses his other hand to drag Jeno to his favorite racing game. Sungchan heads off in his own direction, which leaves Renjun all alone. 

“Guess we aren’t playing anything together right now,” Renjun sighs as he talks to himself. He circles around a bit until he finds one of the games he likes the best. It’s a simple alien shooting game, but the sounds are his favorite and the style is 8 bit, reminiscent of the Space Invaders game. He pushes one quarter in and it starts up. He quickly clears the first few levels and maintains complete concentrations as the game speeds up, adding more opposing elements as well. 

Just before Renjun can reach level 17, he is hit by the enemy and grunts angrily as his last life is used up, the game over screen appearing. 

“Wow, you’re pretty good at that.” 

“Gah!” Renjun exclaims. He had tuned out the rest of the world, so when he was brought back suddenly, he wasn’t prepared. 

“You’re pretty jumpy, are you usually like that?” 

Renjun groans as Haechan plops down in the seat next to him. He sits in it backwards, resting his arms on the back of the chair, then spins to face Renjun directly. 

“Oh lucky me, we run into one another again,” Renjun deadpans, but Haechan plays along. 

“The luckiest.”

Renjun doesn’t want to play his game, though. “It was a joke.” Haechan pretends he’s been shot and fake cries. Renjun rolls his eyes at the act and turns back to the machine, hoping Haechan will leave him alone now; he doesn’t.

“I saw your friends are here too. Chenle and Jisung are facing off one another on the dance machine, Jeno and Jaemin are racing on some car game, and Yangyang and Sungchan are off playing the claw machines. I think Shotaro’s around here somewhere, too.”

“Cool, I’m glad they get along.” Renjun _is_ glad for his friends, but why did they have to leave him alone with this one?

“And here us two are. I’d say it’s destiny.”

“Piss off with your nonsense,” Renjun retorts. 

Haechan only chuckles and spins his chair to face the machine next to Renjun’s. “Well then, let’s play a match. Whoever dies first is the loser. If you win, I’ll ‘piss off,’ but if I win,” he smirks, and Renjun swallows, “you have to sit with me at lunch.”

“Okay, deal.” Renjun is confident he can win; that’s why he accepts. Plus, all of Haechan’s provocation does get to him sometimes; a little competition is fun. He can beat Haechan, and then the boy will leave him alone, at least for today. 

“I’ll be looking forward to having lunch with you on Monday.” Haechan grins, pulling a coin out of his pocket and pressing it into the machine’s slot, then he pushes all his hair back. Renjun inserts his own coin and brings himself back into concentration. 

It’s probably the most stressful match Renjun has had in a long time, but somehow it’s a little fun too. Haechan tries to tease him while they play, and, of course, is ignored. 

Once Renjun reaches level 12, Haechan steps up his game trying to cheat and win. A hand reaches over and tickles at his neck, Renjun cranes his neck, stifling a pained laugh and squishing the hand. Haechan yelps, trying to free his limb while laughing at the same time. 

“Lee Haechan!” Renjun yells, not turning his eyes from his screen. The hand is taken away and, for a few seconds, Haechan is only working on his own game, but then he reaches out again, this time aimed for Renjun’s side. Renjun dodges as best he can and as Haechan reaches further to the side to try and catch him, he falls from the chair. The “game over” exploding sound echoes as he scrambles to climb back up, but it’s too late. Renjun has won. 

“Ha! I win!” Renjun exclaims, he’s grinning and shoots up from his chair. Haechan is still on the floor, a look of disbelief in his eyes, but then he turns back to see Renjun and suddenly his evil grin takes over. “Hey, what is that look for-” Two hands reach up and gently grab at Renjun’s side; he cries out in laughter and immediately reaches out and catches Haechan’s side. The younger boy has a larger reaction, laughing loudly and shrinking into himself, trying to escape the tickle attack. It isn’t until Renjun thinks he’s gotten enough revenge and Haechan can barely breathe through the tears that he stops. As Renjun steps back, Haechan holds up a hand and gasps for air, all while still laughing.

“Okay, okay. I surrender to you Huang Renjun.”

Renjun smirks, “That’s what I like to hear.”

“Oh, really?” Suddenly Haechan is on his feet, advancing towards Renjun, who steps back immediately and holds the purple haired boy at an arm’s length. The leather jacket covering his shoulders is cool to the touch, and several of the bedazzled spikes lay beneath his hands. Renjun looks into Haechan’s eyes, and then both are glancing everywhere around the room except each other. He removes his hands quickly and clears his throat. 

“You better piss off now, we had a deal.”

Haechan pouts, “Another round?” Renjun gives him a look, letting him know the answer is no, and Haechan trudges past him. “Fine, but if your other friends are upset because I’m leaving, that’s on you. Wherever I go, Jisung, Yangyang, Jaemin and Shotaro follow.” 

“Goodbye.” Renjun waves to Haechan; he watches as the younger goes and collects his friends, pulling them away one by one from the games they’re playing. Chenle comes over, frowning once the entire crew has left.

“Why did you make them leave? Jisung and I only got to play a few rounds together.”

Jeno nods in agreement with Chenle, frowning as well. 

The council president tries to explain his reasoning, “Haechan made a deal, and I showed him who's boss. Besides, we came here to play with each other, not them.” Sungchan shrugs, and even though Chenle is still a bit upset, soon he is laughing loudly as Jeno and Renjun fail at the pose machine. The elated dolphin sound rings in Renjun’s ears, and this whole trip is suddenly worth it. 

❀❀❀

They aren’t supposed to pass notes in class; it’s not a good look if Renjun, student class president, gets caught. His friends know this well and yet he still receives a crisp, folded square handed to him under the desk. He makes sure to wait until the teacher is turned around, then quickly opens it, reads it, and folds it back up, stuffing it under his leg. 

_“Sungchan and Chenle said they wanted to sit with Jisung and Shotaro today, I’m going to join them. R u coming too?” - Jeno ⌒◡⌒・_

Renjun takes a deep breath as he thinks about the note. Of course his friends would spend one weekend with these guys and automatically want to switch tables. If he joins them though, it’s like he let Haechan win. Plus he likes it at his table. Renjun can talk with anyone about student council issues. It’s probably just this one time, so he can deal with them sitting elsewhere. 

He doesn’t write a note back, and instead confronts Jeno as soon as the class is over. The cleaning block is next, but he manages to snag Jeno for a few seconds. 

“Are you joining us?” Jeno immediately asks. Renjun shakes his head. “Why not?”

“I’m not close with those guys like you all are, and I don’t know if I can sit through a whole lunch period of Haechan’s teasing,” he explains. 

“Come on, it’s just the way Haechan is, and the others are actually pretty cool. I know you aren’t… fond of them because they’re considered delinquents but, just this once?”

“Sorry.” Renjun shakes his head; he leaves Jeno then and reports to where he was assigned for today’s cleaning. It’s a boy’s bathroom on the second floor, there’s been a report of writing on the stalls again and he’s tasked with rubbing it all off. This has become more and more of a problem throughout the past few years; students scribbling on the bathroom walls or doodling small pictures. Even a small shrine was made to a kpop idol, but it was taken down pretty quickly. 

The bathroom is empty, and Renjun sighs in relief. He grabs the bucket from the corner and immediately begins to scrub at the writing with a sponge. This time it’s directly on the plain white wall across from the sinks, clearly drawn hangul runs across it. 

_I’m stressed, but my grades are more important than my mental health._

Renjun can relate to that. He tends to put school above everything else. Friends, freedom, sleep. Nonetheless, he washes off the first part, then dips his sponge back in the bucket, releasing some of the ink into the water. 

The door to the bathroom swings open behind Renjun, but he doesn’t turn around until he hears the familiar sound of platform boots against the floor. 

“I see you’re the one who gets to wash it off this time,” Haechan notes. Instead of doing any business, he steps over to the sink and turns on the water. He rolls up his sleeves, revealing paint splotches covering his arms. 

“Someone has to. I just wish they would stop.”

“Too bad they won’t.”

Renjun furrows his brows, continuing to wash the hangul off. “Why not? There are consequences for doing this and it’s useless, it’ll just be washed off as soon as it’s found.”

“Think about it,” Haechan says, “these bathrooms are so bland and it’s just a wall begging to be ruined. No one’s going to refuse that. And I break rules all the time but hardly get punished for it.” Renjun stares him down, but Haechan returns the gaze. “Just saying.”

“No matter, I’ll figure out a way to stop this.” He scrubs harder, and after about another minute, he hears the faucet behind him turn off. 

“Are you going to join us at lunch today?” Renjun can tell Haechan is grinning like an idiot while asking, clearly thinking he’s won. 

“No.”

Haechan steps closer and leans with his shoulder against the wall. “Why not? All your friends have taken a liking to mine, and pretty soon my table will be their regular seating.”

“I doubt that. And no offense, but you do know you’re the school’s infamous rebel, and I’m-”

“The class president, perfect in every way, top grades, favored by all teachers,” Haechan mocks. “I understand, you don’t want people thinking you’re hanging out with someone like me.”

Renjun gives him a fake smile. “Exactly.”

Haechan sighs, and it sounds sad, but then he tilts his head and reaches into his back pocket. “Here.”

“What is this?” Renjun asks as he takes a slip of paper. Upon unfolding it, there’s a number. 

“If you ever change your mind about me being an image wrecker, just text. Let me know it’s you though, otherwise I might accidentally block you.” 

“Hey, wait-” Renjun can’t stop Haechan though, and the last he sees of him is the back of his black leather jacket. He stuffs the paper into his pocket, to be dealt with later. Right now, the bathroom vandalism is what needs to be taken care of, and only once it’s all scrubbed off can Renjun go to lunch.

He hopes it’s all a joke and his friends aren’t sitting elsewhere today, but when Renjun enters the eating area, there his friends are. Seated with Jisung, Jaemin, Shotaro, Yangyang, and Haechan. They each are in their own conversations with one another, but Sungchan and Jeno wave to Renjun as he passes by. His lunch is spent alone at the middle table. There’s a sea of people chatting around him, but none of them are anyone he wants to talk to. At least Daewon is far away. Although Renjun does miss his friends, he won’t admit to that; they’d only bother him about not joining. 

Renjun leaves lunch early and chucks his leftover food in the trash, not having much of an appetite. 

❀❀❀

Today’s student council meeting is quite stressful. The school festival is next week, so all of their preparations need to be finalized, decorations ordered, and set list checked. Everyone on the council is rushing to double and triple check their checklists with each other, searching for any holes in the planning. Finally, the last box is checked off and Renjun leans back in his chair, sighing in relief.

They are able to move on eventually, when the topic of bathrooms is brought up. Renjun knows first hand about the increased frequency of bathroom vandalisms. He’s tasked with cleaning them most of the time, after all. The entire student council turns to Renjun for his ideas on how to deal with this.

“Increase the consequences, more so than before. If you’re caught, there’s no longer a warning. It’s an immediate detention and if this keeps happening, there will be a punishment for the whole grade.”

“Will adding more restrictions really work?” One student asks. 

“It should,” Renjun responds. “The more they are scared of being caught, the less they will do it.” Some still seem hesitant, unsure of Renjun's reasoning. He ignores them. As a child, that’s what his parents always used for him: more restrictions, more consequences

After securing the new rules, the meeting is almost done, so they go over everything for the festival one last time. The student performance list is checked again, with Renjun’s name third to last. He has sung every year, but this time the song is something a bit more special. 

“Administration already let me know not to expect full attendance,” Daewon speaks, “the delinquents won’t be coming, so we don’t need to reserve spots for them.”

“No.” The word escapes Renjun’s mouth, and he swallows as everyone turns their heads to him. He’s not even sure what he was thinking or why he said that, but for some reason, Renjun thinks they should still prepare for everyone. “I mean, we shortened it this year, so they might still come.”

Daewon scoffs. “It may be shorter, but they hardly show up to class. None of them have ever come, they aren’t worth it.” Some people begin to avert their eyes. 

“Hey,” Chenle speaks up, “sure, it’s not likely they’ll come, but each one is still a student here.”

“You have to actually wear a uniform to be a student. You sit with those vandals once and think you can influence them? They’ve been bad apples since day one. They’re not worth our time,” Daewon refutes. His tone is hateful. Renjun intervenes before someone starts a fight, clearly seeing how Chenle and Sungchan are affected by the idiotic words of Daewon. 

“Listen, we all know Haechan is unpredictable. And wherever he goes, the others follow. Despite their record of breaking rules and skipping, as the student council, we can’t leave anyone out. Our whole purpose is to give a fair chance to all students.” The other student council members nod, while Daewon crosses his arms. 

The meeting concludes, and as everyone is filing out, of course Daewon approaches Renjun. He can clearly never take a loss. 

“Do you need something, Daewon?” Renjun asks before he can say anything too stupid. 

“You seemed so confident in Haechan having a random change of heart, so we’re going to make a bet.” Daewon is clearly smirking, he just wants to make Renjun feel inferior. It’s how he gets his entertainment: by putting others down. Renjun will never understand what’s so fun about it. 

“Why? I never said-”

“ _If_ they come,” Daewon interrupts, “you win. But when they don’t come, I win.” 

“Are there prizes?” Sungchan asks sarcastically. 

“Glad you asked, of course there are. If you win, you can order me to do one thing for you, but when I win you do what I ask.”

Renjun knows he’s being set up, but if he can win, then maybe Daewon will get out of his and his friends' faces. 

Chenle leans over and whispers to him, “Don’t do it, he’s trying to provoke you.”

The older ignores his friend’s advice. “Fine. I’ll take part in your stupid bet, we’ll see who wins on the festival day.”

Daewon laughs at him. “Sure, but you’ll be begging at my feet like a dog when I win.”

“Whatever.” Renjun pushes past him, done seeing his stupid face and hearing his idiotic voice. Chenle and Sungchan follow behind, shooting glares at Daewon, who laughs at them while they exit. 

“I really hate that guy,” Chenle remarks. 

“Tell me about it, I’ve had to deal with him for four years.”

“Yeah,” Sungchan says, “How have you lived this long without socking him in the face?”

Renjun exhales, “Honestly, I get closer everyday.”

They walk for a bit in silence, but each boy has the same thought on his mind. 

“Renjun, I think you’re screwed,” Chenle states.

“Well, thanks.”

Chenle turns to him, “Seriously though, how are you going to win this? I can try to talk to Jisung and I know Jaemin and Jeno are kind of close, but there’s no way they’re going to come unless Haechan goes.” Sungchan nods in agreement.

“I’ll figure something out,” Renjun reassures them, at least as best he can. The three reach the intersection where they usually separate, and bid each other farewell. Chenle and Sungchan still hold some doubts, but let their friend go so he can plan. 

In the emptiness of his house, Renjun can’t concentrate well on his school work. The festival is running through his mind, and the bet he took. Now, he’s cursing at himself for even accepting. Daewon was going a bit too far, implying Haechan’s crew aren’t classmates like them, so they shouldn’t be considered a part of anything. Renjun may not know Haechan super well, but they’ve been neighbors ever since he moved to Korea, and he can tell Haechan is not the same as everyone views him. That doesn’t mean he approves of his life choices, but he’s not going to treat him like delinquent trash. 

A small idea pops into Renjun’s head. It’s not guaranteed to work in the slightest, but it’s worth a try. Renjun reaches into his pocket and pulls out the slip of paper the purple haired boy handed to him the other day. He takes a deep breath as he unlocks his phone and types in the number, sending a quick text. A reply arrives almost instantaneously. 

__________________________________________________________________________

_You added a new contact “Lee Haechan”_

**Huang Renjun**

Hey Haechan, it’s Renjun. This may be random, but will you be showing up to the school festival next week?

**Lee Haechan**

Hmm…

ill show up if Renjunie doesn’t :)

**Huang Renjun**

???

**Lee Haechan**

Lmao it’s a joke

...but since you asked, ill show up

Better be worth my time tho -.-

**Huang Renjun**

:D

It will be!

_You changed the contact “Lee Haechan” to “Haechan”_

__________________________________________________________________________

Renjun can barely contain his excitement; he can’t believe it was that easy. The door downstairs opens; his parents are home. He quickly stuffs his phone away and gets back to studying. If he’s caught doing anything other than sticking his nose in a textbook, there’ll be a thirty minute lecture on how he’s never going to go anywhere in life with low grades. 

❀❀❀

“Late again,” the teacher remarks as she taps her foot. Haechan gives a little smile and apology as he steps into the classroom and heads for the back of the class. As he passes Renjun, Haechan widens his smile and Renjun’s not quite sure, but he thinks there’s a wink in there too. Either way, Renjun ignores it and calms his rising temperature. There’s no reason for that smile to make him feel a certain way. Yet somehow, finally seeing Haechan emerge into the classroom lifts his spirits. 

Announcements are reported at the end of class and the teacher starts off by discussing the upcoming tests in class. Renjun already feels nervous even though they’re a bit away, but every test determines your grade, and thus, your future. 

“And next week everyone remembers it’s the school festival, yes? We should all look forward to it as our class president and student council president, Huang Renjun, has planned an impressive set up this year. I expect to see you all there.” Everyone gives a little clap to Renjun, who sits up proudly. He does think he sees the teacher’s eyes flicker to the desks behind him, specifically where Haechan is sitting. 

Once everyone is standing to leave, Renjun turns in his chair to catch a glimpse of Haechan. He’s in his same slouched position, making no move to get up just yet. Haechan is already looking at Renjun, and for the time their eyes meet, his pulse picks up. When Haechan mimics giving a kiss and wink to him, Renjun rolls his eyes to cover up his internal panicking. Luckily, Jeno and Sungchan walk over, blocking his view of the infamous delinquent.

They head out of the classroom and start through the halls to their next class. Chenle is waiting outside already, walking with them. 

“I can’t even go one class without the mention of you, Renjun. Who knew becoming council president would make you famous,” Chenle groans, but he’s grinning, clearly proud his friend gets all this attention.

“I guess it comes with the job,” Renjun tells him. 

Jeno chuckles. “You act like it’s a full time job.”

“It is! I have to do so much planning, and make all the decisions!”

“And yet somehow you still find it fun,” Sungchan points out. Renjun nods, but as he looks past his friends, an unwanted guest appears. Same snarl on his face as he’s already snickering. 

“Looking forward to watching you play fetch on all fours next week,” Daewon comments as he passes them. Chenle makes a move to fake punch him, but Jeno holds him back and shakes his head.

“I swear, if someone finds him dead somewhere, you guys would cover for me, right?” Chenle jokes. Sungchan nods. 

Renjun smiles. “Don’t worry, I don’t think that will be necessary.”

“Wait, are saying you found a way to get Haechan and Jaemin and the others to come?” Jeno asks. 

“Maybe… you’ll see on the day of the festival.”

“Actually, we can ask them this weekend,” Sungchan adds.

“Oh yeah!” Chenle exclaims, “We didn’t tell you yet, but we’re going to hang out with Jisung, Jaemin, Yangyang, and Shotaro this weekend! Not sure if Haechan is coming though. Are you going to join us?”

Renjun hesitates. Sure, he’s been talking more with Haechan, but he’s not that close with the others, or technically even Haechan. Tests are coming up too, and the festival. He has grades to focus on, it’s better that he stays inside studying to improve his scores. 

“Sorry, I don’t have any time this weekend.”

Chenle lightly punches him in the arm. “It’s cause you’re afraid Haechan won’t be there, right?”

“No- What- I never even said that? Why is that what you think of?” Renjun tries to defend himself, but he knows how he responded doesn’t do much for his case. 

“I saw him giving you flirty looks in class today,” Jeno joins in. 

“Oh my god, he was _not_! Haechan has always done that since we were kids, he just does it to try and annoy me.”

Sungchan shakes his head. “I was there, looked a lot like flirting to me, which means you’ve been oblivious to it for years.” Renjun shoves his friends a bit and picks up his pace.

“I can’t believe you guys, I’m going to class without you.” Renjun stomps off, but for some reason, he can feel his face heating up a bit. Hopefully, his friends didn’t notice that, but if they saw all of Haechan’s winks, then it’s not probable they overlooked him blushing. 

❀❀❀

Alone at the school, Renjun observes over all the preparations he has finished for the school festival. Since it’s the weekend, no one is here, and he has the whole day to arrange things exactly how he wants. 

Nodding in approval at his work, Renjun puts away a few of the bins he’d gotten out and pushes to the side various wires on the stage, set up for the performances. There’s one last thing he has to do before heading home. Another bathroom has been drawn in, even after they increased the punishment for doing so. It had stopped for a little while, now it seems to have resurfaced and students are drawing whatever they want again.

Renjun grabs a sponge and bucket of water from the supplies closet and drags them up to the bathroom. This time, the drawing is in one of the stalls, a small scenery of a sunset and some giraffes. Renjun doesn’t mind these drawings, they’re a lot better than the often inappropriate scribbles, but it’s still against school rules, so it must go. 

He spends about fifteen minutes removing the picture, then thoroughly washes his hands afterwards, and sprays a bit of perfume to get the smell of bathroom out from his nose.

With everything taken care of, Renjun heads home. 

For the rest of the afternoon, all Renjun does is study. The tests are in the next few weeks and he needs to be as prepared as he can be. Even on the weekends, his parents tend to work late, so he makes his own dinner again. Having grabbed some food from the store on his way home, Renjun is able to enjoy some better quality ramen with meat that he cooks. His mom and dad used to cook all the time when he was younger, but since they moved to Korea and became swamped with work, it’s either Renjun who cooks or ordering in. 

He takes a small break while he eats to watch random videos on youtube, a nice rest for his brain before returning to studying.

Renjun doesn’t even watch the time until his phone buzzes and lights up, showing the time to be 1 am. 

__________________________________________________________________________

**Haechan**

Your lights r on

Why are u still up?

**Renjun**

Studying

But I can ask the same to you because clearly you’re awake as well

And I don’t think you’re studying

**Haechan**

Correct

But this is my normal bed time so I’m allowed

You however, mr class president, need sleep

Isn’t the festival tomorrow?

**Renjun**

Shoot

Yeah

I’m surprised you remembered

**Haechan**

Mhm

Now sleep

**Renjun**

:p

Only because you’re coming tomorrow

And because I’m tired…

**Haechan**

Goodnight :)

__________________________________________________________________________

Renjun really can’t understand this boy, suddenly he’s concerned about his bed time. Whatever, he’s sleep deprived right now and can’t think about that. Renjun climbs into his bed and shuts his lights off. He turns and peers out the window from under his covers; he can see one light still on in Haechan’s house. Renjun thinks for a few seconds, then texts one last thing to Haechan before falling asleep as the light across the way is turned off.

__________________________________________________________________________

**Renjun**

Goodnight

_You changed the contact “Haechan” to “Haechan :p”_

__________________________________________________________________________

❀❀❀

On the day of the festival, Renjun does his best to keep calm. He goes around with his friends and enjoys the activities. His schedule never crosses with Haechan, so he has no clue if he actually showed. He trusts him though; for some reason, Renjun doesn’t think Haechan is the type to make false promises.

When the time for performances approaches, Renjun splits off and goes to get ready. He straightens his clothes in the mirror, warms up his voice, and finds a waiting spot backstage. There are several acts before he goes, all he does in the meantime is enjoy the performances and calm his nerves.

He’s practiced a lot for this; the emptiness of his house made it easy. Yet Renjun still doesn’t feel like he’s spent enough time. Maybe he’s just paranoid people won’t like it; obviously half the students aren’t going to understand the song. Renjun picked out a song in his first language, Chinese, that he finds really beautiful. Chenle will understand it, but other than him and some other students, Renjun is hoping they will discover how calming the tune is and enjoy it because of that. 

Close to his turn, Renjun moves closer to the stage entrance. A student stands by the exit, waiting until the performers before Renjun finish and come off stage. The last chord rings out and students’ applause sounds, then the two girls who just played emerge from the curtains. The stage hand waits a few seconds before sending Renjun out; the setup already changed to fit his performance. Renjun sits down on the single stool in the middle of the stage and adjusts the mic’s height a bit to reach him better. The lights dim again and he takes a deep breath as the quiet music starts up.

As Renjun sings, the world becomes his own. He blocks the sight of the crowd from his vision and only sees the notes from the song in the air. Every lyric he keeps smooth, and the singing feels like honey coating his throat. It makes him so happy to perform like this, and even more to sing in Chinese. 

The song ends, and Renjun releases the last note. Applause bursts out, and Renjun stands, doing a little bow before exiting the stage. A wide grin is on his face and some of the other performers even congratulate him and compliment his voice. 

After every student’s performance is done, Renjun waits until Chenle comes rushing towards him with Jisung following him. 

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were going to sing _Red Bean_! Renjun!” Chenle wraps his arm around the older and jumps up and down with him in his hold. “That was amazing!”

Renjun laughs a little, feeling the energy from his friend. “Yeah, I wanted it to be a surprise for you.” Chenle is still celebrating his friend’s talent when someone places a hand on Renjun’s shoulder from behind. 

“Your voice is amazing,” Haechan whispers into Renjun’s ear. It makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up and a slight tingling feeling pass through his body. Renjun playfully pushes Haechan away from him as the boy laughs. 

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” 

Haechan only continues chuckling at him, but fades his laughter into a fond smile. He pushes his long hair back and it falls down perfectly again. “Seriously though, you have some serious chops. Why did I never know you could sing that well?”

“If you came to previous school festivals you might have known,” Renjun teases. 

Haechan holds both his hands up, “Fair, but I came this year, didn’t I?” Renjun pauses; he completely put aside the fact that Haechan actually did show up. 

“Whoa…” 

The delinquent raises an eyebrow. “That surprising, huh? I did tell you I would come today.”

“Yes! I mean no, I knew I just… anyways, I’m glad you came,” Renjun stutters a bit, but he ends his sentence sincerely. The other boy seems to malfunction, standing still with his mouth a bit open and blankly staring at Renjun. 

A few seconds pass and Renjun turns his head to look back at Chenle, but the younger boy is gone, along with the other kid, Jisung. 

“I guess they abandoned us,” Renjun says, pivoting back around to Haechan. He is gone too and, through all of the hustling people, Renjun can’t see where he went off to. Sighing, he gathers his few things and starts to walk out from backstage and to the halls, but an arm stretches out in front of his pathway, blocking him from advancing any further. Renjun already knows who it is by the aura. 

“How did you do it?” Daewon asks, clearly spitefully.

“What-”

“Don’t play dumb, Renjun. You had to do something for him to actually come. What was it? Did you pay him? Offer to do his homework or something? Put in a good word to the administration?”

Renjun scoffs, “I did none of that. All I did was ask Haechan if he was coming, and he said yes.”

Daewon glares at him, his eyes screaming in frustration and his breathing quickened due to rising anger. “I’ll find out. I know you cheated somehow, and then you’ll be my dog.”

“Try all you want, but you know I never use foul play.” Renjun lifts his arm up and pushes past Daewon. He doesn’t wait up to hear whatever it is the guy yells out at him. 

❀❀❀

For once, Renjun walks with his friends to lunch; he doesn’t stay behind to ask any extra questions or have a ton of cleaning to do. He and Sungchan are laughing at a joke when Jeno tugs on his sleeve and points to something. As they are currently standing in the doorway to the cafeteria, Haechan is sitting at his usual table, dressed in his usual black leather jacket, and waving to get Renjun’s attention. 

Renjun feels his face become a bit hot but briskly walks over, his friends following behind and half the cafeteria watching them. 

“Hey Renjunie,” Haechan says in an innocent tone.

“I don’t think I gave you permission to call me that,” Renjun refutes, crossing his arms. Currently, Haechan is seated upon the table, his platform boots resting against where he should be sitting. 

Haechan disregards his comment. “Will you sit with us today? You and your friends.” Haechan motions to the three behind Renjun, and he turns his head to see Chenle, Jeno, and Sungchan all giving him pleading eyes. He turns back around; Jisung, Jaemin, Yangyang, and Shotaro are all also holding their breaths, waiting for his response. Renjun side eyes the table they usually sit at; it’s packed like always, but he can clearly see Daewon there, making fun of someone and all his friends laughing. Then, his eyes move back to Haechan, and his boot’s current position. 

Noticing his gaze, Haechan stands and gets off from the table, properly sitting this time but never looking away from Renjun. 

Fine. Lee Haechan, you win.

Renjun sighs. “Careful, because these ones are like leeches, the kind that is hard to get rid of.” He takes the seat next to Haechan, who grins and moves over a bit so they can all fit. Chenle happily takes his place next to Jisung and the two automatically start talking about some video game they both play. Jeno and Jaemin converse and even exchange a bit of their lunches, while Sungchan, Shotaro, and Yangyang play some kind of hand slapping game. The table instantly becomes lively, but Renjun is the only one not talking much. 

Eating his lunch quietly, Renjun does his best to not seem awkward. As he observes his friends, he’s shocked at how he hadn’t noticed how close they’d grown with these other kids. It must have been during all those weekends when Renjun stayed in to plan or study, and they went out to hang. Did they go around with Haechan’s gang too? It’s fine to be friends with these guys, because Renjun knows them. Not well, but at least way more than he knows who else is in that gang. 

Haechan swings an arm around Renjun, which startles him a bit. 

“Feeling left out?” Haechan asks him. He doesn’t seem to be joking this time. Renjun shakes his head and frowns, shoving Haechan’s arm off of him. “Come on, I’m right here, why won’t you talk to me?” His tone is “cutesy” and it annoys Renjun.

“Maybe because you’re boring,” Renjun teases. 

Haechan gasps, “You did not just- Me and boring in the same sentence? Perhaps it’s your sense of humor that’s lacking. Trust me, life is never dull when I’m around.” He throws that same wink to Renjun, which makes him roll his eyes. 

“I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here right now.”

Haechan giggles. It’s undeniably cute. “Believe it, baby.”

“Hey-” Renjun is just about to probably punch Haechan in the face, but someone speaks to him, stopping the motion.

“Renjun, right?” He looks over and sees a gentle-faced boy with blond hair smiling at him; it’s Jaemin. Jeno is by his side, currently working on his meal. 

Renjun clears his throat. “Ah yes, you’re Jaemin?” 

The boy nods. “I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your performance at the festival the other day. You have a really nice voice.”

“Oh yeah!” Yangyang joins the conversation from a few seats down, but he leans over in Renjun’s direction to be better heard. “I was so surprised because you sang in Chinese! I really love the song red bean too, an older friend of mine used to sing it all the time. It had been a while since I heard it.”

Renjun smiles; he almost forgot the fact that Yangyang speaks Chinese as well. He had been an exchange student in Germany for a while and probably some other places as well seeing as how he speaks a couple other languages too. 

And suddenly, Renjun is immersed in other conversations throughout the table. He finds talking to them easy, just like when he became fast friends with Chenle and Jeno. Everyone’s vibes blend well, with a bit of craziness contributed from each person. Right before lunch ends, Chenle stands up. 

“Now that Renjun has finally decided to join us, let’s make a group chat with everyone.” It’s pure chaos next as Chenle collects everyone’s numbers and adds everyone one by one. “Aaand, done!”

__________________________________________________________________________

_You have been added to a group with 8 others_

**Haechan :p**

Everyone text your name so if someone doesn’t have a contact they can add you

**Chenle**

HIII

Oh yea

Chenle here!

**Jisung**

Jisung, the youngest ;)

**Renjun**

Renjun

**Yangyang**

What’s up

This is Yangyang

**Jaemin**

Jaemin

:)

**Sungchan**

Hi hi, it’s Sungchan

The tallest hehe

**Shotaro**

I am Shotaro @-@

**Jeno**

Lee Jeno!

_You have added 4 new contacts_

_“Jisung” and “Yangyang” and “Jaemin” and “Shotaro”_

__________________________________________________________________________

The rest of the day, Renjun’s phone blows up from their new group chat exploding with messages. It doesn’t even calm down during classes when they aren’t supposed to have their phones out. He’ll make sure to reprimand them about that later, but for now, he just smiles at the 100+ notifications there for him after class. 

❀❀❀

Renjun thought that after the festival, the next few student council meetings wouldn’t be as stressful. He was wrong. If anything, their intensity increased, and not because any events are coming up that have to be planned or there’s new students to initiate. The vandalisms in the bathrooms have been increasing at a steep rate. None of the new restrictions they put up seem to be working, at least they only worked for a little bit, but then the students got bored again and decided to be even sneakier. 

He’s considered asking for the camera footage to see who might have been the ones to draw on the walls, but thousands of students go to the bathrooms each day and they have no clue when the writings were made. Plus, security footage isn’t available to students, not even the student council president. It’s not illegal or anything; it’s just one of the school’s rules. 

All this means Renjun has to come up with something new, and no one on the council has any ideas. Instead they all toss it to Renjun, constantly asking him what they are to do. The administration wants to get involved as little as possible. They posted a warning once, and it didn’t work. 

“Have you decided what to do yet?” One student council member asks, Renjun hesitates to answer. He can’t answer. 

“Yeah, we have to clean off new drawings almost every day! It needs to be stopped,” another person speaks. The students start discussing with one another a bit. Chenle and Sungchan turn to Renjun with worried expressions. Renjun closes his eyes for a few seconds and takes a deep breath in and out, then faces his council once more. 

He’s about to speak to calm them all down, when the one person he doesn’t want to talk, talks. 

“These restrictions have done nothing, so what are you going to do now?” Daewon mocks him, clearly pointing out the fact his original plan failed. 

Renjun grips his pencil under the table to control his anger. “I have a few ideas, but I request that you all give me this weekend before I have us act on anything. Is that okay with everyone?” 

Daewon scoffs. “Sure, but if you don’t have anything by Monday-”

“I will. I can promise you all that.”

“Why don’t you just talk to those delinquent friends of yours? I’m sure you can get them to do anything now, or not do something.” 

“Daewon, what are you talking about?” Chenle steps into the conversation bravely. Everyone else in the room knows to step back when Daewon starts to use that tone. 

“Don’t play dumb either, Chenle. You seem to know them well, so you should be aware they’re a group of vandals. Who else could be vandalising the bathrooms other than the school’s own notorious criminals.” Renjun’s pencil breaks beneath the table; he’s fuming, but he holds back because they’re in the middle of a meeting. And because he knows how much Daewon’s parents will complain to the school if he yells at their kid. 

Daewon doesn’t stop though, and he continues his provoking as he turns to Renjun again. “Their leader Haechan seems to listen to you Renjun. I wonder if he owes you something. Or maybe you two-”

“That’s enough, Daewon,” the girl Dahyun interrupts, successfully shutting him up, “we don’t need to blame anyone. None of us know who’s really drawing in the bathrooms and, honestly, it doesn’t matter. All we need to do is make it stop.” Daewon grumbles as he leans back in his chair. 

“Thank you, Dahyun,” Renjun addresses her and gives a slight nod. His anger has slowed, but he still takes another deep breath before continuing. “The… delinquents and bathroom vandalisms are two separate topics. Please don’t assume anything about them just because of rumors you have heard outside of school.”

Of course Daewon starts up again. “Why are you, the student council president, defending them? They don’t even wear their uniforms to school and the way you talk about them like they’ve done nothing wrong isn’t what a class president should be doing. It’s almost like you’re defending all the detentions they’ve received for breaking rules, standing by them? This is our so-called ‘leader’ everyone.” 

“Daewon-” Dahyun tries to stop him again, but he continues running his mouth. 

“Seriously, every detention given out to them only further ruins the image of our school. It’s sickening that Renjun would encourage this behavior just because he’s all buddy-buddy with the guy.”

There’s a brief silence in the room. 

“Get. Out.”

Daewon slowly turns his head to face the man seated at the head of the table. “What?”

“I said. Get. Out.” Everyone has now widened their eyes; the tension in the room can be cut with a knife as they wait for Renjun’s next words. “If you’re going to slander students like that, I think you need to take a break from this council. I never said anything about supporting students breaking rules, but that’s not what matters right now. Our job here is to do our best for _every_ student in the school. Even the ones you seem to secretly harbor so much hatred for.” 

Previously so full of confidence, Daewon is now only standing with his mouth wide open and brows furrowed. 

“You can’t kick me out,” he tries to challenge. 

Renjun stands, exploiting his full power now. “Actually, I can. But that’s not what I’m doing. I’m simply asking you to not show up for the next few meetings, take some time to think about what you’ve said here. And you’re going to do exactly that, because if you remember back to the deal you made me agree to, and that I then won, I have the right to make you do one thing that I choose. Well, this is what I choose.”

Daewon opens and closes his mouth, but says nothing. His eyes scan every person in the room, before tilting his head and snarling. Realizing he will not win, Daewon glares at Renjun one last time before stomping out of the room. 

Everyone takes a deep breath when the door is closed behind him. Renjun closes his eyes and sits back down.

He sighs. “I’m so sorry that you had to witness that. This meeting will be concluded early today. You’re all free to go.” As the students scramble to collect their things and head home for the weekend, Sungchan comes over and massages Renjun’s shoulders a bit. Chenle takes the chair next to his friend and rests his head on the table. 

“What’s going to happen now?” Chenle asks. Renjun looks over at him; the younger seems a bit worried and scared. He knows Chenle acts tough a lot, but underneath he still gets scared when there’s tension like that. Renjun extends his hand out and pats his head, giving him a fond smile. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell the administration what happened and try my best to have them restrict Daewon from coming for the next two meetings. Hopefully, he’ll understand what he can and can’t say during meetings now.”

“But his parents,” Chenle says. Renjun just shrugs. 

Sungchan pauses the massage and sits down as well, spinning in the chair a bit. “Thank you Renjun, for defending Haechan and the others.”

Renjun nods. “He had no evidence they did that stuff, and I’m tired of his attitude toward them.” The other two agree, then decide it’s time they leave. Fresh air is just what they all need to shake out the last of their nerves before walking home. 

❀❀❀

For once, Renjun’s parents are home all weekend. He doesn’t know why, but both are currently making calls in separate rooms and typing furiously at their laptops. That’s mainly why he’s here now, stuck in the school library for a few hours until his parents decide he can come home. They don’t want to disturb his work, and he doesn’t want to disturb theirs. Although it would have been nice if they didn’t doubt he would actually be studying. 

He flips the page in his textbook and yawns, then checks the time. It’s only 11:00 pm, which means he’ll probably be here for another hour and a half. The playlist he uses to study along with fades out, the last song ending. Renjun clicks to restart it, but stops just before pressing play. He swears he hears something that sounds like boinging noises, but it’s definitely not coming from his earbuds. 

Pulling out his earbuds, Renjun tilts his head as he hears the noise again. It’s faint, but within the silence of the library, it can be heard well. He lifts from his chair and begins to explore, searching for the sound. It’s definitely something he’s heard before.

Peering down each aisle of books, the sound gets closer and closer. It’s darker the farther down he goes and just before the last row, Renjun turns down into the aisle and quietly walks to the end. Sitting at the very end with his back against the bookshelf, is none other than Lee Haechan. He’s currently staring down at his switch, playing some game on it, and sure enough the sound effects are coming from the object. Renjun observes the entire scene; there’s a bag nearby with a couple books spilling out from it and a notebook sitting in front of Haechan, a few pencils stacked on top. The page it’s open to holds detailed notes with highlighted facts and meticulous organization. 

Taking the chance to get back at Haechan for sneaking up on him before, Renjun crouches down then pokes the back of his neck. Haechan squirms and squeals a bit, lunging forward while snapping his neck back. Renjun giggles, his mission a success. 

When Haechan turns to face him, he looks exhausted. The second their eyes meet, his expression lightens up. It’s quite dark back here, though, so Renjun can’t see too well. 

“Renjun! I can’t believe-”

“What?” Renjun chuckles. “You did the same to me, don’t forget.” Haechan does the thing where he pauses and his mouth stays open for a few seconds with no response. Then he moves again, pushing back his hair and shaking his head. 

“Fair enough. What are you doing here?”

Renjun tilts his head. “I’m studying, but what are you doing here?”

“Gaming, can’t you see?” Haechan waves his switch around. 

“Hmm sure.”

Haechan sighs. “Fine, my siblings were being too rowdy, so I came here to study.”

“And yet you ended up gaming?” 

Haechan shrugs and curls into his knees. Renjun ponders for a few seconds, before reaching out and pulling Haechan to his feet. 

“What are you doing?” Haechan tries to protest, lazily standing as Renjun gathers the boy’s things and shoves them in the bag. 

“Come on, clearly you can’t be trusted to study alone.” Renjun shoves the bag into Haechan’s hands and grabs his wrist, dragging him out from the dark corner. 

Haechan groans as the light reaches his eyes, but he over exaggerates and tries to go against Renjun’s pull. Renjun only tightens his grip and forces Haechan to sit in the chair next to his, then plops down in the chair next to him. The other is already slumping back in the seat and playing with an eraser. 

“Get to work,” Renjun commands him. He opens his book back up and returns to studying the previous content he was on, but after about a minute, Renjun lifts his head and looks over at Haechan, who has not gotten to work. Instead, Haechan is staring directly at Renjun. “Don’t make me-”

“Take a break first.”

“What?” Renjun questions. Haechan seems to be tired; maybe he’s sleep deprived. “No, we need to study.”

“Shhh.” Haechan holds up a single finger to silence Renjun. Renjun seizes the pointing finger, but the younger then uses his other hand to take Renjun’s. He forces it off from his finger and grabs his switch, shoving it into Renjun’s grasp. 

He has no clue what’s happening right now, but Renjun suddenly realizes he hasn’t broken eye contact with Haechan yet. Renjun forces his head away and stares down at the red and blue switch he’s now holding. A game is starting up, something to do with carts and little characters. 

“What is this?” 

Haechan gasps. “Have you never played before?”

“No…”

“I am disappointed,” Haechan sighs, but he adjusts his position and places Renjun’s hands in the correct position for playing. “It’s simple, you control with these, make sure to dodge any objects and other players. Oh, and here you can press this to attack anybody that comes near you.”

“Uh, okay.” Renjun wishes he could focus better on whatever Haechan is telling him right now, but the boy’s practically leaning over him. The round starts, and ends pretty quickly as Renjun struggles to understand what to do. Usually, he’s good at video games, but right now he’s a little distracted. 

Haechan just giggles at his side. “I’ll let you figure that out for a bit while I study.” Soon, Renjun is immersed in the game, getting more and more worked up with each round and every time another player crashes into him. He plays about seven rounds before realizing he’s been sucked in. Renjun closes the switch and places it face down on the table, then stretches a bit and looks over at Haechan, who is, surprisingly, actually studying. He has glasses on now as well and his hoodie pulled up.

Just as Renjun is about to dive back into his own studying, Haechan slams the book closed next to him. 

“You okay?” Renjun asks, the purple-haired boy looks over, not knowing he was being watched. 

“Oh, are you done?” He reaches for the switch, but Renjun snatches it away. “Renjunie, give it back!” Haechan tries to climb over his lap to reach the switch but Renjun holds it out further and further until the boy crosses his arms and returns to his seat. 

“Get back to studying, then you can have this again later.”

Haechan pouts. “This is so boring though. How am I supposed to focus on studying when all the lines blur together?” He flips the pages of his textbook and rests his head against the cover.

Renjun nods. “Okay.” He brings his head down onto his own textbook, the two now facing each other once again. For a few seconds, they study each other’s faces, both clearly wishing they were sleeping instead of studying in a stuffy library right now. 

“How do you do this all the time?” Haechan asks quietly.

“I don’t know. It does get boring, but my parents have set so many expectations, and if I fail, then there’s always consequences,” Renjun answers honestly and Haechan frowns. 

“You shouldn’t push yourself that hard just to meet their expectations.”

He closes his eyes. “That’s how it’s always been for me, so I guess I’m just used to it now.” 

“Mm, still.”

The silence of the library takes over again, and sleep calls to Renjun, but he knows he has to fight it. When his eyes flicker open, Haechan is still there, eyelids half closed. The dark circles under his eyes are quite visible now, but yet he somehow still finds Haechan extremely attractive.

“What am I going to do?” Renjun thinks out loud.

“Hm?” Haechan’s eyes open completely and Renjun catches his breath. He must be so tired he forgot to keep his thoughts inside. 

Renjun tries his best to cover it up. “I mean, I was just thinking, I have no clue what to do to stop the drawings in the bathrooms.” Haechan sits up and rolls his neck.

“Why?”

“I tried to add more restrictions and consequences, but that didn’t seem to work and I don’t know what else to do. I’m supposed to give my answer to the council at the next meeting but…” Renjun fades out, sitting up as well. He feels hopeless, and a bit guilty for unloading that on Haechan. He’s not a part of the student council, so he shouldn’t have to deal with this stuff. 

“I see,” the delinquent responds, “but think about this. If you keep doing something the way you’ve always done it, you’ll never end up anywhere new.”

Renjun takes in those words, and the more he thinks about them, the more they both confuse him and help him. 

Haechan gives a weak laugh. “Sorry, I might have confused you more.”

“No, thank you, actually.”

“Shall we return to studying?”

Renjun scoffs. “You actually want to study?”

“Not really, but I need to do well on those tests.” Nodding in agreement, Renjun repositions himself in his chairs and reaches for his earbuds. When he stares down at them though, a thought comes to mind. 

“Do you ever listen to music while studying?” He asks Haechan.

The boy shakes his head. “It’s too noisy in my house to be able to.” Renjun holds out one of the earbuds to Haechan, and he stares down at it before slowly reaching over and taking it. 

“It helps me focus. You can try, but if it doesn't work for you just give it back.” Renjun stuffs the other earbud in his ear and starts to play his work playlist. As soon as the first song starts, Haechan laughs a little. 

“This is the stuff you listen to?”

Renjun crosses his arms. “Yes, is there a problem?”

“No, actually.” Haechan grins. “This is exactly my taste.”

“Oh. Good. Now get to studying.”

At twelve, they walk home together in the night, a gentle breeze touching their skin. Haechan jokes with him the whole way home and Renjun playfully shoves him in return. Parting ways saddens Renjun a little, but he’s honestly not sure if that’s because he’s sleep deprived or if he’s gotten attached to the delinquent next door. Either way, he immediately passes out in bed. 

Throughout the whole weekend, Renjun can’t stop thinking about the advice Haechan gave him. It takes a while, but he finally deciphers it. Then, a brilliant idea comes to him and he immediately emails the entire council. He can’t wait to tell Haechan. 

❀❀❀

Haechan actually shows up to class on time today, and Renjun smiles brightly at him. Just before the teacher starts the lesson, Renjun sends a quick text to Haechan. 

_________________________________________________________________________

**Renjun**

Thank you!

**Haechan :p**

??

For what?

**Renjun**

I’ll show you after class

:)

**Haechan :p**

I’m scared

What evil thing has Huang Renjun planned

**Renjun**

Don’t be dramatic

It’s something good

__________________________________________________________________________

Renjun barely keeps still in his seat, desperately waiting for class to end. Once the teacher finally wraps up, he collects his stuff and goes over to Haechan’s desk. He grabs the younger’s wrist and pulls him out into the hallway, Jeno and Sungchan joining as well. 

“What is it?” Haechan tries to get Renjun to tell him, but he keeps his mouth shut and maneuvers through the hallways until stopping directly in front of the announcements board. “What-”

“There.” Renjun points to a newly printed poster with bright colors all over it. It’s all the details for Renjun’s idea, to allow some students to submit mural ideas that will then be selected. The picked students can then paint them in the bathroom’s walls around the school. “I thought back to our first discussion on the problem, how you said students don’t mind messing up the walls because they’re boring and bland. And when you told me I had to solve it in a different way because the added restrictions weren’t working, that’s when I thought of this!” 

Renjun pays close attention to Haechan’s reaction as he scans the poster; slowly, the boy’s eyes widen. “Wow…”

“Do you think it will work?” Renjun nervously asks. Haechan turns to face him, a big grin on his face.

“Renjun, that’s actually a genius idea!” 

“Right! I thought about what you said and- wait, what do you mean actually?” He raises his eyebrows. Haechan stretches and puts his arm around Renjun’s shoulders, shaking him a bit for fun.

He ignores Renjun’s question and chuckles instead. “See, you should listen to me more often.”

“Like hell I will.” Renjun pushes the arm off from him. “Maybe if you wore your school uniform, I’d listen to you.” 

Haechan gasps and pouts. “That hideous outfit? You’d never catch me wearing that in a million years.”

“Sure, sure. So even if I said I could get them to add your favorite soda in the lunch options, you wouldn’t wear it?” Haechan almost looks tempted by the offer, but Chenle steps in and ruins Renjun’s plan. 

“Don’t listen to him Haechan. He promised the same to me and it still hasn’t happened.”

“You-” Renjun is about to reprimand Chenle, but Haechan’s laugh cuts him off. The boy’s giggling rings in Renjun’s ears and all he does is stare, captivated by the pure happiness being emitted. 

“Let’s move on, we have to get to class,” Haechan offers, still smiling as he walks away and waits for Renjun and the others to catch up. 

❀❀❀

“Oh. My. God. He’s actually wearing it.” Sungchan nudges Renjun a bit, but he’s already staring blankly at the approaching purple haired boy. He wonders why he hadn’t seen Haechan show up to his first class of the day, but he never imagined the guy would show up in his school uniform. His signature leather jacket is still overtop of it, replacing the blazer, but underneath is the school shirt and tie, loosely worn. 

Haechan plops down into the chair next to Renjun, but he doesn’t say a word as they stare at him. Judging by the shocked looks on Shotaro and Jaemins’ faces, they didn’t know about this little stunt either.

“H-Haechan-”

A hand from the boy silences Renjun. “Don’t say anything.” Still in a bit of shock, Renjun doesn’t realize until a few seconds later that Haechan is currently a bit pink in the face, trying to hide beneath his hair. 

Renjun smirks. “Okay, I won’t say anything. Yet. You still aren’t wearing it properly, though.

“One step at a time, student council president,” Haechan says. He starts to dig into his food as Yangyang and Jisung sit down at the table, in their school uniforms as well. Chenle immediately starts teasing Jisung about it, fixing his collar while Yangyang glares at anyone that dares look at him. 

Renjun wonders what made them finally put them on, but whatever it was, he smiles. It’s nice to see Haechan finally wearing it, even if it is a bit messy. In the past four years since starting high school, he has never seen Sooman High’s delinquents ever wear even the school’s colors. 

He scoffs and shoves Haechan a bit with his shoulder, the younger slowly turns his head, not knowing why he’s being bothered again. Renjun just flashes a fond smile to him, hoping he understands this is his way of saying “thank you.” Haechan nods, understanding the message, then he grabs some of Renjun’s food and stuffs it in his mouth while Renjun attacks him for stealing. 

“Lee Haechan! You have your own food! Eat that, god dammit!”

“But I wanted some of what you have,” Haechan whines. 

“‘Every student my ass Renjun, I see through you.” Someone snorts from behind the boys. Renjun’s blood starts to boil as Daewon walks to the end of the table and places his hands down on it, leaning forward. “Good afternoon, student council president, his groupies and…” Daewon glances at Haechan and his friends with a look of disgust, “others.”

“Could you leave, whoever you are?” Haechan asks, not caring. His apathy mocks Daewon. His apathetic look screaming: _I don’t care who you are and you’re probably too insignificant to be worth my time._

Daewon becomes visibly tense, but he ignores Haechan. “Renjun, I just wanted to apologize for how I acted at the meeting the other day.” Everyone can tell he doesn’t mean it; his tone is so overly sarcastic and he’s not even trying to hide it. Haechan glances at Renjun with a look of confusion; he can tell the delinquent is staying cautious right now. 

“Glad you’ve had time to think over your actions. I’ll see you after the next two meetings.” Renjun rubs a little salt in the wound, hoping it will make him go away so he can enjoy lunch with his friends. 

The disturbance continues, though. “You know, it’s quite impressive. You getting these vagabonds to finally wear their uniforms and all. I need to know how you forced them. Bribery again? Punishments? Or perhaps in exchange for something? I’m assuming you used the same method to get them to come to the festival, did you not?” Beside him, Haechan is staring straight ahead, nostrils flaring and eyes sharp. The plastic fork in his hand snaps beneath the table, but Renjun stands and places a hand on Haechan’s shoulder. 

“I didn’t force them to do anything, Daewon.”

“Whatever you say.” Daewon turns away, and Renjun has to use all of his self control to not jump over his chair and knock him down. Haechan brings his hand up and squeezes Renjun’s, which is still placed on his shoulder. Renjun takes a deep breath in at the touch and sits down. 

Nobody speaks. 

When they do begin to talk again, the topic of what just happened is not brought up. Renjun does his best to join their lightened mood, but with Haechan unmoving next to him, he can only worry. Throughout the rest of lunch, the purple-haired boy doesn’t say anything, just stares down, playing with his food. As Renjun is about to ask him if he’s okay, Haechan gets up, throws his food away, and leaves the lunch room. 

Renjun doesn’t see him again until the end of the day when most students are leaving. He’s walking home with Jeno, Chenle, and Sungchan like usual, but just before leaving the schoolyard, the group spots Haechan and the others outside the gate. They’re with some other kids from various schools in the area, all highschoolers. It must be Haechan’s gang. 

Chenle and Jeno catch the eyes of Jisung and Jaemin, and the four wave to each other, with Sungchan joining along to wave as well. They stop to do so, and Renjun waits while they pause for a little. He only focuses on Haechan though, back against a stone pillar and looking down at the ground. When the leader looks over, Renjun waves, giving him a small smile.

But Haechan doesn’t return the gesture, nor any expression at all. He turns his head away and continues to be fixated on the cracks in the sidewalk. Something inside Renjun stings a little bit and he tilts his head in confusion. Before he can do anything else, his friends are moving on, dragging him with them. Renjun wonders if Haechan is acting this way because of what Daewon said in the lunchroom. Or maybe it’s just to maintain his cool image in front of his gang. Jaemin, Jisung, and Shotaro all waved though, and Yangyang wasn’t around, at least where he could see. 

His friends all seemed to not have noticed, so he keeps up his smile for them. When they split off, he exhales and drops the fake grin. Renjun is worried. He’s not exactly sure why, but seeing Haechan ignore him hurts. Before entering his house, Renjun stares over at Haechan’s house for a solid minute, wondering what on earth this boy has done to him. 

❀❀❀

Later in the week, Renjun is leading the student council meeting and receiving thousands of compliments. Everyone is in love with his idea to have students paint murals in the bathrooms, and the atmosphere is a lot lighter with a certain person missing. 

“I’m amazed more each day, Renjun,” one students says, “I mean, you even somehow convinced the delinquents to start wearing their school uniforms!” All the other council members start to nod, smiling at this fact. Renjun, however, somehow feels worse when the topic is brought up. It’s true Haechan and the other four have been wearing their school uniforms, no matter how messily, but the past few days have been awkward, to put it simply. All the others are fine, but something seems to have shifted between Renjun and Haechan, and it’s not something good. 

During class, Haechan no longer winks when he passes Renjun, and he leaves before they can walk to the next class together. Lunch is painfully quiet between the two, and the delinquent seems to take more space between him and the older every day. The saddest part is that when Renjun reaches his house in the afternoon, Haechan won’t even say hi, if he’s out there at all. The class president has a feeling he is deliberately being ignored, but the look on Haechan’s face isn’t one of anger every time they meet. His eyes downturn and lips form a small frown, his eyebrows quiver ever so slightly as well. Renjun either did something really wrong, or there’s something else upsetting Haechan. 

“Renjun, you good?” Chenle asks, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Renjun clears his throat, “Yes, sorry. Thank you all, I expect to see those who’ve volunteered to do check ups on the murals this weekend to be there. I have taken the last shift but will be there all day, if you have any questions, you can probably find me around.” With everything sorted out for this weekend’s painting of the bathrooms, Renjun releases everyone from the meeting. Chenle and Sungchan go out of the room first, they’ll wait outside for Renjun when he’s done organizing all the papers. 

Filing the last schedule away into his binder, Renjun slings his bag over his shoulder and exits the room. 

“Hey.”

He pauses in the doorway. Haechan stands right outside it, pressing his back against the wall, head turned upwards. 

“Can we talk?” Haechan quietly asks. Renjun takes a few seconds before nodding, then the two start down the hallway. “I saw Chenle and Sungchan on their way out and asked them if they could go on ahead.”

“You wanted to talk to me alone?” Renjun finally speaks. 

Haechan averts his eyes, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his school uniform pants. “Yeah.”

“Okay…” Renjun takes a deep breath; his worries from the past few days must be true. He’s done something to upset Haechan. “What is it you want to talk about?”

The purple haired boy stays silent until they reach the outside. Then, he answers, “About what Daewon said the other day… It’s just… the way he was speaking about the others, and about you…”

“Daewon always says stupid things, I wouldn’t take what he said too seriously.”

“I know, I’ve heard about him, but,” Haechan stops. Renjun turns around to face him and the other lifts his head finally, their eyes meeting. “Renjun. Are you only hanging around me and the others because we’re problems for the student council to solve?”

“Of course not,” Renjun immediately responds. “Haechan, we hang out with you guys because we’re friends. Because we have fun with you and enjoy your company. I will admit the student council talks a lot about me being around you but they, especially Daewon, tend to make up rumors about things they don’t know everything about.” 

Haechan tries to cover his previous worried expression with a fake smile, “So, you really aren’t using me for gaining brownie points in the council?”

Renjun places a hand on Haechan’s shoulder. “Haechan, we’re friends. I want to sit with you at lunch because I like you, and I want to walk home with you after school because I think you’re funny. We bicker all the time, but I can do it comfortably with you and we both know it’s because of how close we are. Not because of anything else.” Renjun can’t stop his words as they pour out, but putting mostly everything out there is relieving. He’s not one to show emotions well usually. 

“Then, about how everyone else sees you when we’re together?”

Renjun tilts his head. “What do you mean by that?”

The next look in Haechan’s eyes speaks for him. Renjun has seen the same look on Chenle’s face before, when underneath everything he’s scared of something. Instantly, Renjun can read what it is Haechan is thinking. Is he scared of hurting him or is he scared Renjun will hurt him instead?

The purple haired boy gives a weak laugh, “Nothing, let’s get walking.” Passing Renjun, Haechan continues his way out from the school premises. Renjun is still worried though. 

“Hey, you know you can always talk to me about what’s bothering you, right?” Renjun catches up as he reassures Haechan, but when he makes it to his side, he sees Haechan scrunch his nose and stick out his tongue in disgust. 

“Bleh, don’t go soft on me Renjunie! I can’t handle it, it’s so-”

Renjun shoves him and Haechan stumbles a bit to the side, giggling. “Shut up, I was trying to be a nice friend.”

Haechan cringes again, “Ew, what’s that word you used? Friend?”

“Lee Haechan!” Renjun threatens, but Haechan quickly apologizes while grinning. 

The rest of the walk, they discuss other things, like their recent tests and how the other did. Renjun did excellent of course, like usual, and Haechan did roughly the same. Turns out, that’s his normal as well, but he scored even higher than Renjun in a couple classes because he remembered a bit more from the night they studied together. 

At one point, Haechan reaches into his bag and pulls out a box of pepero, offering some to Renjun. They end up sharing the entire box up until the last stick, which they play rock, paper, scissors for and Haechan ends up winning. He brags about it, annoyingly taking tiny bites of it right next to Renjun’s ear just to rub it in. Once they reach their street though, Renjun challenges him to a race, and this time he wins. 

“Ha,” Renjun barely squeaks out as he gasps for breath, “I won this time.”

Haechan sighs, “To be honest, I gave you a head start.”

“That’s bs right there,” Renjun challenges, “I know we started at the same time.”

“No, it’s true,” Haechan tries to convince, but the smile he can’t fight gives him away. 

“Whatever you need to tell yourself to feel better, I have to go study now.” Digging into his bag to find his keys, the boy next to him pulls out his own keys and they both unlock their gates at the same time. Just before Haechan enters though, he says one last thing. 

“Good talk today.” And then the delinquent is gone. 

❀❀❀

The weekend arrives and just as Renjun is about to leave to go to the school, the group chat starts to text.

__________________________________________________________________________

**Sungchan**

Let’s hang out today! 

Who’s coming?

**Chenle**

Meeee

Arcade again? I still need to beat Jisung a couple more times

**Jisung**

Why are you always attacking me T.T

I can come btw

**Chenle**

Bc I get joy from annoying you :)

And I’m still upset you didn’t let me have some of your chips the other day -.-

**Yangyang**

Geez remind me not to make Chenle upset

**Haechan :p**

Can’t go

I’m busy 

**Renjun**

Sorry guys, I’m also busy

I have to monitor the mural painting at school

**Shotaro**

Wait

OMG

LMAO

Okay, n e ways, have fun with that

Oh, and I can come

**Sungchan**

Shotaro wtf??

**Chenle**

Shotaro…

**Yangyang**

??

Shotaro are you okay???

Give me like an hour and I can hang

**Shotaro**

Sungchan, Yangyang, text me separately 

**Renjun**

Have fun today!

**Jisung**

Thanks!

**Jaemin**

Jeno and I can come

**Chenle**

Wait... how do you know Jeno can come? 

**Renjun**

Don’t tell me you two are already together right now

**Jeno**

… 

It’s not like that,,, we just ran into each other 

Right Jaemin 0-0

**Jaemin**

No comment

**Yangyang**

Suspicious

**Jaemin**

No, what’s suspicious is that Haechan has only texted once this entire conversation

**Chenle**

He must be realllllly busy rn ;)

**Haechan :p**

Shut up you guys I’m trying to concentrate and you’re blowing up my phone too much

_Haechan renamed the group “Kool Kidz” to “Ham Spammers”_

**Renjun**

HDJSKHDJKSDHSJ

**Sungchan**

NOOO

WHAT IS THIS

**Jisung**

Why do I like this name better?

**Sungchan**

I. am. Hurt. 

Let me change it back pls ;-;

**Shotaro**

No

**Chenle**

No

**Jaemin**

No

**Yangyang**

No

**Renjun**

No

**Jeno**

No

**Jisung**

Nope

**Haechan :p**

The court has spoken

__________________________________________________________________________

Renjun shuts his phone with a smile and stuffs it in his pocket. He wonders what Haechan might be doing today as he walks, but once he reaches the school, his thoughts concentrate on the murals. 

He grabs his clipboard and sits by the front table for the first few hours, checking in the artists and letting them know which bathroom is theirs to paint. Then he walks around a bit, observing some of the paintings coming along on the lower floors. Around lunch time, he heads to the cafeteria to grab an early meal. A couple others are in there, but it’s relatively empty and he sits alone at his usual table. 

Getting his earbuds out, Renjun watches some youtube videos while eating. He’s quite enjoying them, until a certain obnoxious person pulls out the chair across from him and stares until Renjun can’t avoid him. 

“Daewon.”

“Renjun.”

“Do you need something?”

Daewon pretends to think for a few seconds, but Renjun knows he always approaches already knowing what he wants to bother you about. “No. Nothing in particular. I just wanted to let you know I’m _so_ excited to be returning to the next student council meeting.”

“Oh, right. So exciting.”

The bully scoffs, “You should look out- oops, I mean, look forward to seeing me there. There’s a lot I have to say.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Renjun says sarcastically. Daewon snorts once more before removing himself and leaving Renjun alone at the table again. Disgusted by his presence, Renjun no longer has an appetite and decides to not finish the rest of his lunch, throwing it in the nearest trash can and returning to work. 

As the day gets closer to 3 o’clock, Renjun’s real shift starts. He has the upper floors, and luckily, since most of the check-ins set up everything for the rest of the day, these will be the final ones. He goes along and peeps into each bathroom, receiving a thumbs up from the artists who are all either jamming to music coming from a speaker or individually listening through their headphones. He admires everyone’s progress; each piece of art looks beautiful, with everyone bringing a unique style with varying color palettes. 

Reaching the last bathroom, Renjun rolls his neck and steps into it, already checking off the box. 

“Everything going okay in here....” He pauses mid checkmark and doesn’t finish the sentence. The painter has purple hair he’d recognize anywhere, and is a bit short, barely reaching the area he wants. Haechan is wearing his school uniform to paint, and large headphones that completely cover the sides of his head. 

Renjun slowly approaches, first glancing over the outlines of the drawing Haechan is currently filling in the color for. It seems to be two animals, but the style seems quite abstract and there is a lot to be filled in with the paint. He reaches out and gently takes the headphones off from Haechan’s head. The younger turns around, not knowing what’s going on until he sees Renjun. 

“R-renjun… I didn’t know…”

“That I’d be here? I don’t believe that Haechan, you knew I’d be doing the supervising today.”

“Well, obviously, I knew that, but I didn’t think you’d come to this specific bathroom…”

Renjun tilts his head. “Did you not want me to?”

“That’s not it,” Haechan tells him. 

“Then,” Renjun glances past Haechan at his in progress masterpiece, “Why didn’t you tell me you made a mural?”

Haechan takes the headphones back and places them on the ground next to a stool containing a bucket of paint brushes and another filled with water. He walks past Renjun and goes to wash some of the paint off from his hands. 

“I was going to tell you, but then I thought, maybe it would be better if we spent less time together.”

Renjun sighs. “Haechan, don’t worry about-”

“But I do worry. I don’t want to ruin your image, or cost you your position in the student council. I don’t want to be the reason that Daewon guy bothers you.”

“Oh.” Renjun didn’t think Haechan was that worried about protecting Renjun’s image within the school. He tsks. “What about you? Don’t I ruin your reputation as the most fearsome and devious gang leader in town?”

Haechan cocks his head. “No? Why would you?”

“Exactly.”

It takes a few seconds for Haechan to understand what Renjun is telling him, but when he gets it, he smiles. 

“You’re going soft now,” Renjun teases. 

The purple haired boy rolls his eyes. “I need to get back to painting.” 

“Right.” Renjun doesn’t make a move to leave, and Haechan eventually turns around again to face him. 

“Is this your last stop?”

“Yes actually,” Renjun responds. 

Haechan opens his mouth, then closes it and simply smirks. “Then you can paint with me!”

“Wait- no I can’t, I don’t know how to paint. I don’t want to mess up your-”

“Come on, have a little confidence, I’ll show you anyways.” Haechan rerolls up his sleeves, which reminds Renjun of the fact that the boy is wearing his school uniform instead of a smock to protect his clothes. Not to mention his tie is loose like always. Renjun rolls up his own sleeves regardless and steps closer to Haechan, who grabs some brushes. 

“Why are you wearing your uniform to paint?”

Haechan shrugs, “It was my spare clothes.” Renjun takes a deep breath and controls himself from saying anything. Of course Haechan would treat his uniform like this; at least he’s finally wearing it. “Alright, you can do this part over here because it’s relatively easy.” Haechan begins to show Renjun how to correctly use the brush to create the effect he wants on the painting, then shows him which colors to use. 

Renjun learns relatively quickly, and though he’s nervous when starting out, Haechan guides his hands to steady their shaking. Pretty soon, he’s left to work on the part alone while Haechan works a little more to the side. They talk a bit while working, and play some music at points, but mostly there’s a nice silence between the two while they paint the wall. 

It takes another two hours of exhausting themselves before it’s finished, and they step back to admire it. Renjun now realizes what it is. There's a bear cub in the background playing some game with a small fox. Something about it, however simple the concept is, draws Renjun in. Perhaps it’s the unique way Haechan textures their fur or the way he somehow gave both animals expressions displaying pure happiness. He smiles at it, then looks over the Haechan, who has a proud gaze. 

“Haechan, it’s really cool,” Renjun says. The boy turns to face him. 

“Of course, anything I make will turn out cool.” 

Renjun shakes his head. “Naturally. How about cleaning up now?”

“What?” Haechan whines, “Can’t we let someone else clean up?”

“No, we have to do it, come on.” Renjun walks over and begins collecting the various sized brushes left on the floor. He hears Haechan walk over, but he doesn’t come to pick up the brushes. When Renjun turns around, Haechan is standing there with an evil grin. In the next seconds, Haechan reveals a brush full of paint from behind his back and swipes it at Renjun’s cheek, leaving a long mark of blue paint. 

“Oh you did not…” Renjun brings his fingers up to touch the paint as Haechan giggles and dodges to the side, trying to hide by the sinks. Ready to get revenge, Renjun dips two of the brushes he’s holding into the red and blue paints and walks over to Haechan. He chases him until they get into the corner, and Renjun manages to put two colored marks on Haechan’s neck and hand. Then he drops the brushes and goes to tickle the younger’s sides. 

Haechan bursts out laughing as he tries to get back at Renjun and soon the two are stuck in a furious tickling battle. Renjun grabs both of Haechan’s hands, reaching out for him and pins them against the wall, above the delinquent’s head. 

Both boys pause, their faces suddenly only a few inches away. Haechan stares into Renjun’s eyes, and Renjun stares back, then he glances down at the boy’s lips. They’re so close, and both are being pulled closer to one another by some force. Renjun’s heartbeat picks up, his nerves spike with excitement and long to get even nearer to Haechan, who’s in front of him.

But Renjun panics and releases Haechan’s hands. He looks down at Haechan’s tie and swallows as he grabs it, tightening it all the way up to the boy’s collar. Then, he steps back while turning around and clears his throat. 

“You need to wear the tie properly. It’s been bothering me for weeks.” Renjun turns back to look at him again, and sees Haechan blushing like crazy, his sun kissed skin now rosy in his cheeks and ears. Haechan is staring blankly, and it takes a few seconds before he can properly function again. 

“Right, thanks,” Haechan barely gets out. He takes a deep breath and comes back to Renjun’s side, reaching down to pick up some of the dropped brushes. 

They clean in silence for the next few minutes, then Haechan checks out and the two walk home. It’s almost completely dark when they reach their houses, so the two say goodnight, then disappear from one another’s sight. 

❀❀❀

Throughout the next few days of school, everyone admires the bathrooms. Teachers come up to Renjun and compliment him on the idea of it, and of course they compliment the various student artists as well. 

Renjun went back several times to look at the mural he and Haechan did together, remembering their last moment together where they were so close. Too close. Everytime he thinks about his face heats up, and his friends have already asked him several times if he has a fever due to his blushing. 

Now, his friends have concluded that all the blushing must be due to someone, and with that person missing from their lunch table right now, they start to tease Renjun about it. 

“So Renjun, everyone’s talking about the paintings, did you and Haechan have fun this weekend?” Chenle asks. 

“I guess,” Renjun tries to keep calm and ignore their teasing. 

“Mm,” Jaemin joins in, “clearly it must have been fun, seeing as how they’ve both been bright red all week.”

“What? That’s not-” Oh no, Renjun can already feel his face heating up again. “What are you suggesting?”

Suddenly his friends are playing dumb. “Nothing at all Renjun, we’re just… giving our observations.” Renjun glares at Chenle and threatens him with the knife he’s currently using to cut his strawberries. 

Haechan plops down next to Renjun and immediately digs into his food. His tie hangs loose, not tightened again and is so close to falling into his food. Renjun shakes his head and immediately reaches over, pulling it tight against Haechan’s neck. The boy pretends he’s being choked and frowns. 

“Why must you always do that?”

“Because you’re going to get it dirty,” Renjun refutes. 

“I could say the same for you,” Haechan points out. He puts his utensils down and reaches over, folding up Renjun’s uniform sleeves, hovering just above his fruit juice. Maybe there was a reason the others had been teasing him, because right now Renjun feels a certain way about Haechan taking care of him. 

“Hello to you too,” Yangyang says from across the way. Haechan shoots him a look then goes back to eating his own food. Renjun moves back to cutting his strawberries so he can eat them in halves, but he feels Chenle’s eyes upon him and looks up. The younger boy is smirking, with Jisung copying him. Renjun scrunches his nose and ignores them, going back to his fruit. 

“Watch out idiot,” Haechan says, he suddenly grabs Renjun’s hand and moves it over onto the table. The class president doesn’t know what’s going on and gives Haechan a questioning look. “Don’t look at me like that, you were about to cut your finger if you moved it any closer. Ah seriously, Renjun.” Haechan shakes his head. 

Their lunch continues with the two leaders bickering with one another like usual, and all the others there are spectators to watch and whisper their observations to one another. It’s entertainment for them, and something they can use later to tease the two. 

Their friends aren’t the only ones watching Haechan and Renjun though; their dynamic brings the eyes of several others in the cafeteria. They’ve long learned to ignore these gossiping classmates, and don’t plan to let any of them ruin their friendship.

❀❀❀

Right before Renjun goes to bed that night, he receives a text from Haechan. 

__________________________________________________________________________

**Haechan :p**

Renjun~

I can’t sleep T-T

Play a game with me

Pls ;-;

**Renjun**

Fine.

What game?

Also I’m in bed so I can’t get up to turn on anything

**Haechan :p**

No need

I found a new game u can get free on mobile that’s multiplayer 

It’s called Among Us

Tell me when u have it downloaded and I’ll explain how to play

**Renjun**

Hm

Ok

Downloaded

Now what is it?

__________________________________________________________________________

Haechan explains to him how to play the game, and they play several rounds together. One game, they both are the imposters and completely wipe out everyone else without anyone raising suspicion about the two of them. Pretty soon though, Renjun is yawning constantly. He’s tired, but Haechan still hasn’t fallen asleep yet, so he wants to stay up a bit longer to make sure the other does go to bed. 

Renjun texts Haechan and asks if he is able to sleep now. There’s no response, but Renjun sees the last light next door turn off. Then a sleeping emoji is sent, and Renjun rests well knowing Haechan is okay. 

❀❀❀

The next day at school, Haechan doesn’t show up to his first class. Or the second and third classes. Just before lunch is when Renjun finally decides to text him and ask where he is. 

__________________________________________________________________________

**Renjun**

Lee Haechan!

Where are you?

You aren’t skipping are you?

Did you stay up too late playing video games and not sleep?

**Haechan :p**

No

I have a fever ;-;

So I actually couldn’t make it today :p

Also, I’m hurt you thought I would be skipping

I only skip one class at a time, three in a row is too hard to cover up

**Renjun**

Alright, I’m sorry :(

I hope you feel better, rest well

I can bring your homework to you

**Haechan :p**

Dw that’s not necessary 

(Do NOT bring it, that means I will have to do it -.-)

**Renjun**

Exactly :)

I have a student council meeting but then I’ll come over

In the meantime, dream of me ;)

**Haechan :p**

I’m afraid I would be having a nightmare then

__________________________________________________________________________

  
  


Renjun makes sure to collect extra copies of the homework for Haechan in each of his classes. The lunch table feels emptier with him missing.

He impatiently waits throughout the entire student council meeting, eager to go see Haechan for some reason. Hopefully, the boy slept all day so he could recover quickly. 

Once the meeting is finally over, Renjun stands and gets ready to leave. Chenle and Sungchan stop him though. 

“We’re going to grab some food, where should we get it from?” Sungchan asks. 

“Yeah, you have to be the tie breaker because me and Sungchan both want different things,” Chenle explains. 

“Sorry guys, I have to bring Haechan’s homework to him. I’ll join another time.” His friends pout but nod in understanding. A disturbing face makes its appearance in Renjun’s path, right before the door. 

“Covering for your skipping boyfriend I see?” Daewon speaks. Half the council is still in the room, and currently unable to leave due to Daewon blocking the only exit. He clearly wants to face off with Renjun with a full crowd. 

“Actually Daewon, I think you need to get all the facts straight before you speak nowadays. Haechan is sick right now, not skipping. And secondly, he’s my friend, but I doubt you’ve ever had a friend before, so I can see why you might confuse it with something else.” A couple snickers sound behind Renjun, and once again he has won. Daewon just keeps setting himself up. Embarrassed in front of all these people, Daewon steps to the side and does nothing but gives Renjun his usual glare. Its effect is weak, more so than usual, and Renjun easily ignores it as he skips out of the room. 

The sky is quite pretty today, but he knows he can admire it tomorrow; right now, Renjun wants to make sure Haechan is feeling okay. He reaches the gate and sends a text to Haechan, letting him know he’s there. A few minutes later, a woman steps outside and opens the gate for him, then leads him inside the house. 

“You must be Renjun, I’m Haechan’s mother,” she says, smiling brightly. Renjun bows while greeting her, and as he steps into the sitting room, two young kids burst in, chasing one another with some toys. Haechan’s mom yells at them a little, saying they have a guest. The two boys stop briefly and stare up at Renjun, then run off again. “Sorry about that, those are Haechan’s younger brothers. He’s just up the stairs and to the left. Thank you so much for coming to drop off his homework.”

“Of course,” Renjun responds. Haechan’s mother points to the stairs and he thanks her while heading for them. Walking to the second floor, Renjun follows the instructions and turns to the left, going forward until he arrives at a door with a “don’t disturb my beauty sleep” sign on it and Haechan’s name scribbled on a nameplate. Renjun gently knocks and then turns the knob, slowly entering into the room. 

It’s actually a lot cleaner than he thought, with the only messy part being a few shelves. Other than that, there’s a desk, a bean bag across from a couple gaming systems, and of course, a bed. A lump is buried under a couple blankets, but the body starts to shuffle upon hearing its door be opened. Hanging just above the bed is a large rainbow flag. Seeing it makes Renjun realize so much, and suddenly he’s more relaxed, and somehow more nervous too. 

“Mom, I told you not to bother me anymore,” Haechan wails from under his covers. 

Renjun chuckles, “Okay dear, I’ll just leave your work here and leave you to rest.”

Haechan shoots up, eyes wide. “Renjun- you- you’re here… In my room.” Renjun watches as the younger’s eyes dart around the room, searching for its imperfections, but he relaxes seeing it’s relatively clean. 

Walking over to the desk, Renjun pulls out the papers he collected today and places them on the surface. He has to push a few pencils to the side to make room and, as he does, he spots the figurines lined up at the back of Haechan’s desk. He picks one up, assuming it’s from some video game.

“Thanks,” Haechan says to him. Renjun puts the figurine down and turns back around. Haechan is now sitting up, his hair is in a little pony tail, which looks cute. The purple in his hair is faded even more now, closer to a pastel color. 

“Did you get to rest today?”

“Yeah, I practically slept the whole day.”

“Good, do you still have a fever?” Renjun walks over and reaches his hand out to feel Haechan’s forehead, but the boy takes his hand before he can touch him and puts it down. 

“Renjun, I’m fine. My fever broke earlier this morning.”

Renjun is skeptical, but he lets it go and gets up to leave. Haechan tugs on his hand, still holding it. 

“Don’t go yet… it’s been boring here alone all day. Let’s play a game or something,” Haechan begs. He fiddles around with Renjun’s fingers and Renjun can’t refuse. Haechan slides over a bit and pats the bed, motioning for Renjun to join him. 

“You’re sick, I’m not sitting there.”

Haechan rolls his eyes. “Relax, I’m not contagious anymore and I won’t breathe in your direction. We can even put a barrier between us.” Renjun sighs and climbs into the bed next to the younger, sitting criss cross on top of the covers. He grabs a stuffed bear and puts it between them, then pulls out his phone, ready to play whatever Haechan wants. Haechan pulls out his laptop though and searches up Netflix. “Actually, I want to watch a movie.”

“Okay, but you better chose something good,” Renjun tells him. He’s hopeful until Haechan pulls up _The Kissing Booth_. Honestly, he’s never seen it, but all the reviews are mixed. Renjun’s impression was that it’s just another extremely cheesy and heterosexual movie with unbelievable events that somehow happen to these teenagers.

Obviously sensing his hesitation, Haechan turns to Renjun and gives him a pleading look with shining eyes. “I promise it’s not as bad as everyone says. Sure it’s not the best, but I really enjoy it.” He looks away bashfully and Renjun sighs; as long as Haechan enjoys it, that’s all that matters.

They start the movie, and while certainly several parts are cringey, Renjun does get a few laughs from it. He really likes the best friend; he has a cute and innocent look to him. A couple times Renjun looks over to check on Haechan, who’s fully immersed in the rom-com. He can’t quite tell if his cheeks are a bit rosy due to his sickness or if he’s shy because of the movie.

By the time it ends, it’s around dinner time and the sun has sunk far down. The sky is a light purple color now, similar to Haechan’s hair but slightly more blue. Renjun gets up and stretches. 

“What did you think?” Haechan asks him.

“It wasn’t half bad, Still cringey and unrealistic, but when are these kinds of rom-coms not like that? I'd say it was decent, at least this first one, and doesn’t deserve a lot of the hate it gets.”

Haechan squeals, a sound Renjun has never heard before. “I’m glad! Whenever I tell people it’s one of my favorites they always trash on it and make me feel bad for liking it…”

“No one should make you feel bad for liking something. If they do, they’re an asshole,” Renjun tells him plainly. Haechan giggles cutely. 

“I know.” He frowns then. “Are you leaving now?”

“Yeah-” There’s a knock at the door, cutting off the older’s response. Haechan’s mom pops her head into the room. 

“Hey you two! Dinner is ready, Haechan. Renjun, will you be staying to eat with us?”

Renjun shakes his head. “It’s okay, I have food at home I can fix up for myself.”

“Are your parents not home?” She asks him. 

“No, they both work long hours and usually eat at work then come home quite late.”

Haechan’s mom gives him a warm smile. “Well, in that case, I insist you eat with us. I made enough, and Haechan has never had any friends over before. It will be nice to talk to you and ask about what my son is like at school.” She gives him a wink and Renjun can feel Haechan’s ice cold gaze burning into the back of his head. 

“Okay then, thank you.”

“Delightful, both of you come down in two minutes!” Then, Haechan’s mother closes the door, humming lightly as she exits. Renjun turns back to Haechan, who falls back on his bed and groans. 

“Don’t say anything to embarrass me,” Haechan orders. 

“No promises.” Renjun walks over and pulls him out of the bed. It takes a minute but then they head down the stairs together. 

Renjun hasn’t eaten dinner with anyone in a long time, and never this many people. Even when his parents used to eat with him, it was only them three since he’s an only child. Haechan has three younger siblings, plus both his parents. The table is a bit hectic, but the food served to Renjun smells delicious and there really is enough for everyone to have two or three servings. 

Haechan’s mom finishes dishing out food and starts to talk while eating, “So Renjun, I know you live next door, but how come I’ve never heard Haechan talk about you much until this school year?” 

Swallowing before he speaks, Renjun glances over at Haechan, who is busy helping one of his younger brothers eat properly. “Well, to be honest, I never spoke much to Haechan until this year. Our friends became close, and since we were always around each other, we started talking more and then naturally became friends.” She nods, smiling. 

“Haechan told us you’re the student council president, I hope he doesn’t give you too much trouble. I know he can be… somewhat deviant at times.” She laughs a little. Just how much does Haechan talk about him to his family?

Renjun shakes his head. “Don’t worry, he’s really more a blessing than a curse.”

“I’m glad.” she smiles, then turns to help the youngest, Haechan’s little sister, to clean up some of the drink she spilled. 

Haechan finishes feeding his younger brother and gets started on his own food. It’s strange, he hasn’t spoken this whole time. 

“How was school today?” Haechan’s mother asks the little girl. That question seems to flips a switch in her brain and Renjun watches as her face turns from a bright smile, to a quivering frown. Haechan’s sister begins to suddenly cry, upset at the questions. Her mom quickly works to quiet her, asking what’s wrong. 

“I was late to school today and my teacher yelled at me,” she says, some snot pouring down. “It’s because Haechan didn’t get me up and ready for school today.” Renjun tilts his head, confused. 

Reaching over, Haechan wipes away his younger sister’s tears with a napkin. “I told you I needed some rest today, you’ll be on time tomorrow.”

Haechan’s dad finally speaks, “You can’t always rely on your brother to wake you up.” He turns to Renjun. “My son is often late to school because his mother and I have to go into work quite early, so Haechan takes care of his younger siblings for us.”

“Dad,” Haechan speaks to ask him to be silent. Renjun stares over at him, suddenly realizing how much he has wrongly interpreted about Haechan. 

“I’m sorry,” his mom speaks, apologizing for the fiasco as Haechan’s little sister finally stops crying. His two brothers were surprisingly quiet most of dinner, but now that they’ve finished, they started to play with each other again. The eldest four at the table finish their dinner calmly, discussing various things. Haechan’s dad is actually pretty funny, and Renjun thinks that’s where he got his sense of humor from.

He’s sad when everyone has cleared their plate, not wanting it to be over. It was heartwarming. Sure, he eats with his friends at school, but this felt different somehow. A family unit. He hasn’t been a part of one during a dinner in so long. 

Renjun tries to help with cleaning the dishes, but Haechan’s mom shoos him away, arguing guests shouldn’t have to clean and he’s already done enough by bringing her son’s homework over, and keeping him entertained. Haechan walks Renjun outside to the street where they will part. 

“Thanks again,” Haechan says nervously. 

“For the homework?” Renjun jokes. 

Haechan stares at him, the stars reflecting in his eyes. “Something like that, yeah.”

“Tell your mom thank you for dinner again.”

“It wasn’t too much of a bother, right?” Haechan asks as he rubs his neck and pushes his hair back with the other hand. 

Renjun shakes his head. “Of course not. That was actually… well, I haven’t had dinner with other people in a long time. At least not a family. And Haechan,” Renjun beams, “I didn’t know you held the title of best big brother in the world.”

Haechan blinks for a few seconds at Renjun’s compliment before functioning again as his usual self. “I would brag about it, but then people might become jealous and try to take it away.” 

“Seriously though,” Renjun becomes serious with his words, “I never knew all this time when you were late, it’s because you were taking care of your siblings.”

“It’s nothing really, and technically it’s still my fault because I ignore my alarm and tend to get up late,” Haechan chuckles, “but does this mean you’ll stop glaring at me when I come in late?”

“Maybe. I might keep it up for the show, can’t have everybody thinking I’m being soft on you. I’m still student council president after all.”

Haechan rolls his eyes. “I almost forgot.” The next few seconds are silence, with the crickets that come alive at night singing loud. With the waning moon above, Renjun turns to Haechan. 

“Good night Haechan.”

The boy smiles fondly back at him. “Good night Renjun.” Then they split ways, their gates opening and closing at the exact same time. 

❀❀❀

A few weeks later, Renjun is in the middle of class when the group chat blows up with notifications. He gives a look to Sungchan, Jeno, and Haechan, his eyes telling them not to answer until class is over. Surprisingly when he checks his phone later after class, they followed his orders and hadn’t responded until now. 

__________________________________________________________________________

**Yangyang**

Alright, half of our gang is out of town this weekend because of their school’s trip 

They get to go to Jeju -.-

N e ways, that means we can all hang out more than usual

So after school today?

**Chenle**

Yes

We can be your replacement gang for the day 

**Jisung**

Idk how I feel about you being in a gang @Chenle

**Chenle**

You’re literally in one Jisung

**Jaemin**

I second Jisung’s concern

Chenle is too pure to be tainted by our gang activities

**Shotaro**

Actually I feel like he’d fit right in

**Chenle**

THANK YOU

**Jisung**

NOBODY ASKED SHOTARO

Chenle just wants to try and beat me at something else

Also back to the original topic

Who’s hanging out today?

**Chenle**

That may or may not be true

And I said I’m coming

**Jaemin**

I am

**Shotaro**

I am

**Yangyang**

Cool

What about the others?

@Haechan, Renjun, Jeno, Sungchan

???

**Chenle**

Ah, they all have class together

Renjun is probably watching them to make sure they don’t text in class

Give it a bit

**Sungchan**

Hi, class just ended

I have one thing for cleaning but then I will be coming

**Renjun**

Yeah, I have cleaning assigned so I’ll need to do that right before joining

**Haechan :p**

I actually have cleaning as well…

**Jaemin**

Uh oh, by process of intuition I’d say Jeno has cleaning as well ;-;

**Jeno**

Wrong actually

I’ll be there on time

**Renjun**

Can you guys just wait for us out in the courtyard

It probably won’t take that long

**Chenle**

Okay, but be quick

We all know who lurks in the courtyard looking for victims after hours

**Haechan :p**

Noted, I will scrub as fast as possible

**Sungchan**

^^

__________________________________________________________________________

❀❀❀

In the afternoon, Renjun is briskly doing his chores around the school. He’s just about to finish and is walking back across to the main entrance of the building. He saw from a few of the windows before Chenle, Jisung, Jeno, and someone else waiting out in the courtyard for him. Renjun wonders which part of the building Haechan is cleaning in, and hopes he’s done soon too. 

Renjun’s thoughts are interrupted by a high, shrill scream. He knows that scream. High pitched, often considered to be imitating a dolphin, but that’s when the scream is from laughing. Chenle does not hold any joy in this scream.

His legs work immediately, dropping the broom in his hand and dashing out into the courtyard. Renjun’s heart is pounding inside his chest, fearing something horrible has happened. He sprints across to where he saw Chenle and the others before. There’s only three now, and Chenle is on the ground being cradled by Jisung. Jeno is crouched down with them, looking at something on Chenle’s leg. As he approaches, Renjun sees. 

A sizable gash is on the side of Chenle’s leg. It’s bleeding, and Renjun crawls down to Chenle’s side, observing the wound. 

“Thank god it’s not that deep.” Renjun exhales as he inspects the scratch. He looks over to the small stone circle; a few of the sharp rocks have some of Chenle’s blood on them. “What happened?” Renjun hurriedly asks, already working on calming down a shaking Chenle. 

“Daewon…” Jisung starts. Renjun immediately shoots up at the name. “He was bothering us, and Chenle was just defending us and then he shoved Chenle. Then he ran away-”

“Where?” 

“Into the school.” Jeno points. “Renjun don’t-”

“Get Chenle to the nurse and have her clean up his wounds. Daewon has gone too far this time.” Renjun pivots, and runs into the side entrance of the school before any of them can stop him. His blood is boiling; Daewon better be prepared for the storm that’s about to knock him over.

Behind him, Jeno tries to call his name, but Renjun ignores him. “Renjun! Renjun, get back here!”

Turning down every hallway, Renjun doesn’t stop until Daewon is found. He’s standing in the middle of the art hallway, unmoving. His back is to Renjun, a dark shadow crawling across the floor under the harsh fluorescent lights. The silence is almost echoed, Daewon being the only thing present and making no sounds at all. 

“Daewon!” The bully turns slowly at his name being shouted, his shadow shrinking. “You asshole! You’ve gone way too far!”

Daewon laughs loudly; it’s unnerving. It’s deep waves pass through where Renjun stands and then return to sound for another round. “What? He had it coming, the little bastard. Can’t expect me to always keep cool around someone _that_ annoying.” Renjun stomps up to Daewon and grabs his collar, shoving him up against the wall. 

“I’m tired of your attitude. You can’t talk to or treat my friends like that.”

The dude scoffs, despite being at a disadvantage, and smiles disgustingly wide. “Mr. Class President, you can’t do anything to me without getting in trouble. I can talk to whomever I chose, however I chose.” Renjun grits his teeth, glaring at him, but he releases his collar and takes a few slow steps back. Daewon is cackling and fixing his collar. 

Then, Renjun lunges forward, punching Daewon straight in the middle of his face. He grunts, stumbling backwards at the impact and holding his bleeding nose. Renjun readies himself to attack again as Daewon stares down at the blood on his hands. 

Daewon snarls and makes a fist, he throws his hand forward to reach Renjun, but someone else steps in, blocking the punch with a palm. With his faded purple hair, Haechan stands in between Renjun and Daewon. 

“Haechan, you don’t have to-”

“Stand back,” he orders Renjun. Daewon smirks.

“Oh look, your boyfie came to protect you, how romantic.”

Haechan growls at him, “I hate talking. Let’s fight.” Haechan holds his fists up and gets into a proper fighting stance. Renjun can instantly tell he has experience, he is a gang leader after all, but Renjun never thought he really knew how to fight. Daewon takes several weak swings at Haechan, who smoothly dodges them all; he doesn’t make any attempts back yet. 

After a few more tries of Daewon pathetically punching the air, he gets physically angrier and Haechan finally makes a move. First, he goes for a side punch to the face, then kicks him in the chest, making Daewon fly back into the wall. He hits it with a _thud_ and Renjun can tell the wind has just been knocked out of the asshole. He feels no sympathy for him; after everything Daewon has said and done, he deserves this. 

Turning around, Haechan beams at Renjun, releasing his tension. Renjun has been shaking this whole time, scared for Haechan and he rushes over to hug him. Before he can reach him though, Daewon jumps up and slashes something at Haechan’s shoulder. He grips his shoulder in pain, giving out a cry. Renjun screams as he reaches them and grabs Daewon’s wrist just before he can bring the item, a thick box cutter knife, again on Haechan. Despite his wound, Haechan still uses his feet and kicks Daewon in his midsection, hard. This time, the bully falls backwards onto the floor, dropping the exacto knife in his hands. 

He begins to scurry away quickly and Haechan attempts to follow him, but he winces in pain, Renjun holds him back. Tears are forming in his eyes and he makes Haechan sit on the floor, immediately ripping off his uniform’s sleeve to get to the cut. It’s directly over his bicep, and a bit deeper than the one Chenle had. Renjun has to take Haechan’s hand off of it in order to see properly. 

Haechan gives a weak laugh. “How bad is it?” A tear falls from Renjun’s eye. 

“You’re going to be okay, but I need to get you to the nurse’s office to properly disinfect and wrap it up. Chenle and the others are already there.” Renjun starts to lift Haechan up from the ground, but the younger stops him with fearful eyes. 

“Please, don’t take me there. They’re going to ask questions, and they call my parents. My Mom already gets enough calls from the school daily, and she’ll want to take me home. And if my siblings are there… I don’t want them to see this.”

Renjun doesn’t even think twice. “Then we’ll go to my house.” Haechan nods, accepting that, and slowly stands; he uses the torn off sleeve to press against the wound. It’s not bleeding profusely, but Renjun will still want Haechan to get it checked out soon. “Come on.” Renjun assists Haechan in walking, picking up the blade on the way. He has to make sure it wasn’t rusted. 

When they reach the outside, Jeno is the only one still standing there; he rushes over, concerned. 

“What happened?” He asks, panicked.

Renjun answers quickly, “We fought with Daewon, but the dirty bastard pulled out an exacto knife and got Haechan’s shoulder. I’m taking him back to my place to take care of it. Where’s Chenle?”

Jeno nods. “Jisung and Sungchan carried Chenle to the clinic and Jaemin was heading over there too to help clean the wound. Do you need any help?” 

“No, I can take care of Haechan, please go check on Chenle and text me updates on how he’s doing.” Jeno nods at Renjun’s request and looks over to Haechan, who bows his head slightly, signaling it’s okay for him to leave. Jeno dashes off, leaving Renjun and Haechan alone together. 

They take the pace slowly, but with every minute that passes Renjun fears Haechan will faint on him from blood loss. He knows that won’t happen, but right now, he’s so worried, every possibility is running through his head. Haechan has no problem walking, his legs aren’t injured, but he still leans on Renjun and uses him to help him walk. Renjun doesn’t mind, whatever he can do to help Haechan right now. 

Finally, they reach their houses, and Renjun unlocks his gate, bringing Haechan inside and immediately taking him to the bathroom and sitting him down. He rummages through the medicine closet and pulls out the disinfectant, a few cotton swabs to dab it on, and a large bandage that can cover the wound. He returns to his friend and immediately gets to work. 

Renjun holds out his hand. “Hold my hand and take a deep breath.” Haechan doesn’t question and does exactly as Renjun tells him, clasping his hand around the olders. Renjun doesn’t want to have to do this, but he dabs the cotton pad full of cleaning alcohol onto the wound. Haechan immediately tenses up and lowers his head, squeezing Renjun’s hand tightly. Renjun tries to work quickly on this part, and he whispers soothing words to Haechan to calm him. “It’s okay, you’re doing well. Just a few more seconds.” 

Dabbing the last part of the cut, Renjun can see it’s not even as deep as he thought it was; it’s probably the same as Chenle’s cut. Haechan is still squeezing Renjun’s hand, the alcohol’s sting no doubt fresh and painful. Renjun rubs his back with his other hand. The delinquent lets go of his breath and Renjun thinks he hears him sob a bit. 

He brings his hand to Haechan’s chin and gently lifts his head up; what Renjun sees devastates his soul. Haechan has tears welling up in his eyes and a pained expression. 

“Renjun… it burns…”

“I know, but you’re doing so well. The stinging will fade soon,” Renjun just reassures him more, holding back his own tears at seeing someone so precious to him in so much pain. Haechan uses his grip on Renjun’s hand to pull him into a hug, and with his arms wrapped around the older, Haechan compresses him with warmth. Renjun lets him, not minding the bit of blood that gets on his uniform. When he is released, Haechan is shaking less now. 

Renjun then takes the bandages and wraps them around the cut. He doesn’t have any band-aids big enough to cover it, so this will have to do for now. 

“Come on, you need to lie down for a bit.” Helping Haechan up, Renjun leads him to his room and lets him lay down into his bed. Haechan doesn’t seem to want to sleep, but Renjun piles a few blankets over him and tucks stuffed animals around him for Haechan to hug if his cut starts to hurt. Renjun sits on the side of the bed and brushes some of Haechan’s hair out of his eyes. 

“I’m not a baby, you know,” Haechan states.

“Shh,” Renjun silences him and strokes his hair again. “Sleep now.”

“Renjun, what are we going to do about Daewon? If he reports you-”

“Don’t worry about that now, it’s the weekend. And Daewon technically had a weapon on school premises that he used to hurt you, which means if anyone is going to be severely punished, it will be him.” Haechan nods slowly, then leans back into the bed, letting himself fall asleep. Renjun sneaks down to the first floor and pulls out his phone, checking Jeno’s messages about Chenle. 

__________________________________________________________________________

**Jeno**

Nurse cleaned up Chenle’s wound

He’s fine now

Over exaggerated with fake tears, you know how he is

Left nail marks on Jisung’s arm because he clung so tightly to him

How’s everything over there?

**Renjun**

That’s good

Tell Chenle I’m proud of him for handling the pain

I did the same over here and wrapped Haechan’s wound

He’s sleeping in my bed now

I still can’t believe Daewon really used a knife…

...wtf

**Jeno**

He’s really…

I don’t believe it either

I’m glad Haechan is going to be okay

Also Chenle says you sound like his mom btw 

**Renjun**

Tell him to rest now and not play video games

And tell him to at least call me dad -.-

**Jeno**

He says “Yes dad (eye roll)”

__________________________________________________________________________

A few hours later, when Renjun re-enters his room, he finds Haechan awake and lying on his side. The side without the injury, of course, and he follows the boy’s gaze to where his small rainbow flag lays against his window. Renjun clears his throat and Haechan sits up. 

“Did you sleep well?” The younger nods in response and begins to get up. “What are you doing?”

“I have to go home now, so my mom doesn’t worry,” Haechan says. Renjun frowns, not wanting to let him go after what just happened. 

“Okay, but you’re going to take care of your shoulder, right? You can come over tomorrow and I’ll change the bandage. Don’t sleep on it tonight and eat well-”

“Renjun, I’ll be fine,” he giggles, now standing. Haechan looks over at his shoulder and the ripped off sleeve. A bit of blood is on the rest of his uniform and he frowns at it. “I hate to ask, but can I borrow a jacket to cover this up?” 

Renjun nods.“I can give you a shirt to change into.” Walking over to his dresser, Renjun digs into his shirt drawer and pulls out a simple black t-shirt with the word “dream” printed in small, white font in the corner. Its sleeves should be long enough to cover Haechan’s wound. He hands it to him, then turns as Haechan starts to undo the buttons on his school shirt. “I’ll wait in the hallway, come out when you’re done.”

He briskly heads out of the room, exhaling when he makes it out. For some reason, his face feels a little hot, but it’s probably some pressure left over from crying earlier. A minute later, Haechan emerges from the room and nods to Renjun, letting him know it’s time to go. They walk outside in silence, and stop just in front of Haechan’s gate. 

“Haechan…” Renjun starts, “Thank you. For protecting me today.” Haechan locks eyes with him.

“I protect those who I care about, and I know you do the same.”

Renjun parts his lips a bit but is too lost in the boy’s shining eyes to speak. With a quick move, Haechan pivots inside the gate and closes it behind him, leaving Renjun alone out on the street. 

Haechan doesn’t end up coming over the next day. 

❀❀❀

Haechan doesn’t come to his first class on Monday, either. When he’s not there at the second class too, Renjun texts him. No response. 

__________________________________________________________________________

**Renjun**

Hey

Are you resting today?

How’s the cut?

Does it still hurt?

Haechan, you didn’t come over this weekend, I’m really worried

Please let me know you’re doing okay

__________________________________________________________________________

By the third class, Renjun is becoming increasingly confused, especially when he sees Daewon in the hallway glaring at him. Daewon is here in school, but Haechan is not. Suspicions begin to form in Renjun’s mind, and it doesn’t help that his friends haven’t said anything. 

At lunch, Renjun slams his food onto the table and stares everyone down. 

“Okay, can somebody tell me where Haechan is and why he isn’t responding to my texts?” They all avert their eyes, and that’s when Renjun knows something has gone wrong. “You have five seconds. One. Two-”

“Fine,” Jisung breaks, they all stare at him and sigh. “Daewon reported what happened to the school, but for some reason, he changed the details, and only framed Haechan, claiming he was attacked out of nowhere by him. Haechan has in-school suspension all week, and at the end they’re going to decide whether or not to transfer him…” Renjun widens his eyes. 

“Why didn’t he tell me this? Why do you all know but not me? Why didn’t the school get a second witness to say what really went on? Why didn’t they look more into it besides just trusting Daewon’s word and-”

“Renjun, you know how much of a coward the school is when it comes to Daewon. His parents are high up, they have influence and power. If they wanted, they could probably get the whole school shut down.” Yangyang shakes his head then. “Haechan texted us and told us not to tell you. He practically begged us, and that’s something I’ve never seen Haechan genuinely do…”

Renjun becomes more furious, but not at them, and not at Haechan. “But all of this was Daewon! Who cares about his parents? He’s the one who did it, not them! He attacked Chenle, he pulled out a knife on Haechan! Haechan was only defending me when he punched him, why is he taking all the blame quietly?” 

“We don’t know exactly, but Haechan probably thinks, with his record, it’s better to not oppose this time. He doesn’t want any of us to intervene,” Jaemin tells him. 

“The principal will trust Daewon’s word over Haechan. Even if his parents weren’t like that, Haechan is still labelled as the school’s delinquent” Shotaro points out. “Maybe he knows we can’t win this time.”

Clenching his fists, Renjun slams them down on the table. “Bullshit, if that’s it, then the principal will trust my word over Daewon’s. I need to go talk to him right now.” Suddenly Jeno and Sungchan jump up and hold Renjun in place. “What are you doing? Let me go, I need to do this! This isn’t right!”

“I’m sorry, Renjun,” Jeno solemnly says, “Haechan told us if you tried to do anything, we were to hold you back.” 

“So now you’re listening to Haechan more than me?” Renjun half shouts. A couple heads in the cafeteria have turned at this point. “I can’t believe this. We all know he doesn’t deserve this, why won’t any of you let me protect him!”

“Because,” Chenle states, “For once, someone else is protecting you, Renjun. None of us have ever been able to do that. So let him. For us and for you.” Renjun shakes his head; he can’t accept this. He can feel some tears building up again and pushes out of Jeno and Sungchan’s grip on him. They try and stop him but he’s already running away, dashing up the stairs until he reaches his destination. Renjun walks into the bathroom and is faced with his and Haechan’s mural; he slams his fist against it. Closing his eyes, Renjun let’s a few tears drip down. 

“Dammit. Dammit! Stupid idiot! Let me help you!” He mutters those words over and over again, frustrated from being held back. Now he’s not even sure if his word would be helpful at all to Haechan. Daewon has always found a way to twist things and manipulate the staff to his side. Or maybe they were manipulated from the beginning, his parent’s money flashing in the school board’s mind. They couldn’t even believe someone as “innocent” as Daewon would have Renjun wanting him to be banned for two council meetings. 

Renjun skips the rest of lunch, instead he keeps crouches in the corner of the bathroom. Thinking, planning, searching for any way to make sure Haechan is not transferred. When he comes up with nothing, Renjun returns to class but doesn’t pay any attention. All he does is think.

When school is finally let out, Renjun stays for a few minutes, ignoring his friends who try and make sure he’s okay. Once the classroom is empty, Renjun leaves and heads into town. He knows exactly where to go, having heard rumors of this place long ago. When he arrives under the crossing bridge, he finds exactly what and who he’s looking for. 

Haechan’s gang is all gathered here, talking in groups; a couple turn their heads but don’t pay much attention to Renjun. Shotaro spots him and walks over, clearly nervous. 

“Renjun, what are you doing here?”

Renjun looks past him into the group. “I need to talk to Haechan, please.” Luckily, he can’t see any of the others who go to his school, only Shotaro is here. He looks down at him. “Please.”

Shotaro takes a deep breath and slowly nods. “I won’t stop you from talking to him. Follow me.” He leads him past the group of delinquents under the bridge, who all stare at Renjun with questioning looks, and to the other side where a figure is crouching in a corner drawing in the dirt with a metal stick. He’s turned around, but the studded black leather jacket gives him away. Shotaro clears his throat and Haechan drops the metal stick. 

“Why are you bothering me?” 

“Sorry, Haechan, but there’s… someone here to talk to you.”

“If it’s Renjun, tell him I don’t want to talk to him right now.”

Renjun steps forward. “You’re not getting rid of me, so turn around and face me.” Haechan sighs and stands, then slowly turns. He nods his head to Shotaro, who shuffles away. 

“Whatever you say-”

“No, listen to me, Lee Haechan. You are not the one who should be taking all the blame for this. We both know it’s Daewon. Why are you letting him frame you?” Renjun goes off. 

Haechan steps in front of Renjun, staring directly into his eyes with an intense look. “Because, that kid won’t stop until he can get someone else punished. As long as you and the others aren’t involved in it, that’s all I need. Plus what’s a few days of ISS for me?”

“But it’s not just that!” Renjun raises his voice, angry. “You could get transferred! I don’t-” He chokes a bit, not being able to say what he really wants to. “I will find a way to fix this.”

“Stop Renjun, it’s not worth it.” There’s barely any room between them, but Haechan still steps closer. “If you’re safe, that’s all that matters to me. I hit him, I kicked him. It doesn’t matter who tells a different story; they’ll believe Daewon because he’s on the student council and I’m just a lowlife delinquent.”

“But-”

Haechan covers his mouth. “No. You’re not going to do anything. Go home, Renjun.” Renjun shoves the hand off of his mouth and steps away. 

“I’ll fix this.” 

Haechan chuckles. “You’re cute when you’re mad.” 

Before he can let Haechan shut him up anymore, Renjun stomps away, pushing through the gang members. He sprints home, shouting in frustration on the way. Haechan can’t just let it end like this; Renjun is not going to let him sit back and be blamed for protecting his friends. Daewon used a weapon against him, he hurt Haechan with a blade. That enough should mean Daewon is the one being transferred, but everyone believes Daewon. They don’t even try to go against him, afraid of the repercussions. 

He slams his room door behind him and flops on his bed, stuffing his face into a pillow. Instead of studying that afternoon, all Renjun does is brainstorm again, for any way that he can clear Haechan’s name. 

Unlike earlier today though, an idea pops into Renjun’s mind. He briefly questions why the school hadn’t done this first, because it’s what ther always do. Then he remembers Daewon’s snobby parents and concludes that’s why the school would ignore something as major as this.

It’s risky, but only for him, and even if he gets caught, it will be worth it. He’s going to get in trouble regardless. Pulling out a piece of paper, Renjun begins to plan, and doesn’t rest until every detail has been decided. After watching a few youtube videos, he sneaks downstairs when his mom is home and digs through her bag till he finds what he wants, then he goes to bed. 

❀❀❀

In the morning, Renjun immediately puts his plan into action. Waking up extremely early, he steals his Mom’s laptop for a total of 3 minutes before quietly putting it back in her bag. Using the password he got from her bag last night, Renjun unlocks the computer and goes to her email. Then, he writes up a quick email which he sends to the school, pretending to be his Mom and saying that Renjun has a small cold and will be coming in late. 

Once the first part is done, Renjun gets ready for school, grabs the keys Doyoung gave him that he swiped from a staff member two years ago, and skips over. He makes sure to blend in with all the other students entering the school, then breaks off into an empty hallway where the surveillance room is. He knows for a fact that no one checks the cameras this early in the morning, which means he has about an hour and a half before he needs to be out of there.

Renjun swivels his head around, searching for anyone nearby, then pulls the key out. His heart is beating rapidly in fear, it hurts to break the rules like this, but it’s for a really good reason. He enters the dark room, several screens lighting up in front of him. Renjun can already see the several places where the camera’s watch, with students entering and talking just before class. Shutting the door behind him, Renjun sits in the chair there and searches for the camera on the first floor hallways, as well as the courtyard. 

It only takes 10 minutes to find the ones he’s looking for and then Renjun rewinds back to the day the fight happened. He speeds through the hours, until he gets the parts he’s looking for. Renjun is able to screen record the exact moments, when Daewon approaches Chenle, Jisung, and Jeno, to him pushing Chenle down and running away. It boils his blood, but he has to continue on to make it on time. Then, Renjun records the entire fight between him and Daewon, and up until Daewon once again runs away. He turns his head away when the knife cuts at Haechan. 

With everything he needs, Renjun sends the videos to himself then deletes them from the security computers and returns each screen to how it was before. He pushes the chair in and checks the camera to see if anyone is in the hallway; when it’s all clear, Renjun quickly walks out and locks the door. 

He steps naturally through the hallway and approaches the front, making it seem like he’s just arrived and entered the school. His hands are sweating, nervously, but the staff suspects nothing and checks him in with a late pass. Then, Renjun goes to class, handing the pass to his teacher and sitting down. Jeno and Sungchan send him looks, being the only people wondering what might be going on, but Renjun gives them nothing. 

To finish off his plan, Renjun goes to the bathroom during lunch and pulls out his laptop, then drops the videos into an email and explains everything in writing. He takes a deep breath and presses send. Once it’s successfully sent to the principal, Renjun shuts the computer and calms himself. He was slightly shaking all day, but now that the scariest part is over, everything will be okay now. Renjun looks up at the painting of a bear and fox and smiles weakly. 

“Soon it will all be okay, Haechan.”

❀❀❀

The next day is when Renjun gets the result he wants. During the morning class, the teacher tells Renjun he is being summoned to the office, and he goes with a smile on his face, already knowing what’s going on. When he arrives, Daewon and Haechan are already seated, with an empty chair in between them waiting for Renjun.

Taking the spot, Daewon glares at him so intensely Renjun thinks he might accidentally burn his eyeballs with that look. Haechan doesn’t look over; instead, he focuses on the desk, his leg bouncing and hands clasped together. 

The principal enters and the three greet him. 

“Do you three know why I’ve called you in here today?” 

“Yes,” Renjun responds. 

“Honestly, I have no clue,” Daewon lies, using an innocent voice. Haechan doesn’t say anything until the principal looks at him, he shakes his head. 

“Okay, let’s start then.” The principal sits down across from them. “I know Daewon came to us to report an incident that happened the other day, where he claimed Haechan attacked and beat him up on school property. Haechan, you made no attempt to deny this claim, but with what Renjun has shared with me recently, I wonder why you didn’t tell me what really happened?” Renjun grips the chair’s arm. The Principal is a coward to face Daewon’s parents; even if Haechan had told his side, there’s no guarantee it would’ve helped. 

“If I may,” Daewon quietly starts, “Renjun and Haechan are close friends, so I have a feeling Renjun might try and defend him by telling a different story.”

The principal nods. “Yes, well, right now this is not a case of one person’s word versus the other. Renjun has provided very clear evidence, which,” he clears his throat, “I admit was quite serious for us to overlook at the beginning and not check into.” Daewon straightens up, his eyes fearful. Haechan also sits up and looks over to Renjun, confused. 

“Renjun, what did you…” he starts to whisper to Renjun, but the principal clicks something on his computer and then turns the screen so the three can see. The camera footage Renjun stole yesterday is being displayed, clearly showing both scenes where Daewon first pushes Chenle, and then his fight with Haechan and the use of a weapon.

“That-how- I didn’t-” Daewon stutters. His eyes are so wide they could pop right out.

“Daewon,” the principal speaks, “I am extremely disappointed in you. We do not tolerate the use of any kind of weapon against fellow students, especially on campus. Not to mention hurting other students unprovoked.”

“But he punched me!” Daewon tries to defend himself and jabs a finger at Haechan.

“Did Chenle punch you?” 

Daewon can’t say anything else; he opens and closes his mouth, and then shoots a hateful look at both Renjun and Haechan. 

The principal continues, “Daewon, I want you to go into my office with the Vice Principal and have a serious discussion with him about your actions. We are going to contact your parents, and a transfer will be discussed.”

“What?” Daewon screeches as he stands, “ _I’m_ getting transferred? What about that stupid delinquent? He’s done more than enough to be transferred, why is everyone always protecting him? This is stupid!”

“Choi Daewon, that is enough! We do not tolerate this kind of behavior! Go into my office immediately!”

Daewon forcefully pushes his chair back and stomps into the Principal’s office, the vice principal entering after him and locking the door while closing the blinds. 

Sighing, the principal turns back to the two boys sitting awestruck. “I’m so sorry for that, and especially to you, Haechan, for blindly believing Daewon. You will not be transferred, and I want to apologize to you and your parents for reacting so harshly the first time”

Haechan nods, thanking the principal. Renjun beams, elated that Haechan will be staying, but before he can celebrate, the Principal frowns at them. 

“Thank you so much, Renjun, for clearing this all up and showing me who the real victims were. However, due to school policies, fights are still prohibited on school premises. Even though it was in defense, according to the rules, you both must receive some form of punishment. All I will give you is another day of in school suspension tomorrow. For today, go home early and rest.”

“Wait, but I’m the one who mainly hit Daewon, Renjun only punched him once, can’t you overlook that and give me extra ISS instead?” Haechan tries to bargain. 

“I’m sorry.” the principal shakes his head. “Even if I overlooked that, this footage is from our security cameras, which are specifically off limits to students. How Renjun got it, I don’t know and don’t need to know, but he must still be given one day of ISS in order to comply with our rules.” Renjun nods; he knew the minute he came up with this plan, there would be no way to escape punishment, but he was willing to sacrifice his perfect record to keep Haechan here. The younger looks over to the class president, with a look of disbelief, and Renjun smiles at him. As he does, he thinks he sees a few tears forming in Haechan’s eyes. Either that or the lights in here are making his eyes extra glossy and shiny. 

❀❀❀

Stuck in the ISS room all day alone with Haechan, Renjun is the happiest he’s ever been. For the first hour, they were both relatively quiet. Renjun did a bit of reading, but what he really wants to do is bicker and joke with Haechan like they usually do. Finally, gathering the courage, Renjun gets up and sits on top of the desk in front of Haechan. 

Haechan looks up at him, but he can’t read his expression. 

“Let’s do something fun,” Renjun tells him. Haechan doesn’t respond. “I know we don’t have our phones or anything…” He fades out as he stares down into Haechan’s eyes. There’s a glimmer in them, and darkness behind that makes Renjun frown a bit. 

When he speaks, Haechan’s voice is quiet and delicate. “Thank you…” A sudden tear falls and the sight of it tugs at Renjun’s heart. Haechan looks away, sniffling and wiping the forming droplets away. 

“Oh Haechan.” Renjun hops off the desk and rushes to his side, bringing him directly into his arms. The boy leans into the hug, wrapping his arms around Renjun and resting his chin on the older’s shoulder. As Renjun squeezes him, he lets him know it’s okay now, and hopes this will reassure Haechan that he can let it out.

Sobs sound from Haechan and the falling and rising of his chest; Renjun can feel it against his own. They stay together, hugging in an embrace of warmth, comfort, and healing. Haechan mostly quiets then, and Renjun gently rubs his hands up and down the back of the younger. 

“Renjun, really, thank you so much. Secretly I was scared of being transferred and having to leave you… and the others. And how would my siblings see me? I-” He chokes on his words again, but takes a deep breath and continues on. “I didn’t want you to get in trouble, but in the end you still did… I’m sorry.”

They slowly separate, but Renjun still holds him at an arm's length, giving him a reassuring smile. “I’d do anything for you, we protect each other right? Don’t blame yourself for any of this, it wouldn’t have mattered how I cleared your name, because I would have broken into the surveillance room a thousand times to keep you here. Besides, threatening the principal with releasing the footage if he didn’t fix this mess was a lot more fun than it should have been.”

Haechan gazes at him and smiles softly, but then he chuckles. “You broke into the surveillance room? And you blackmailed the principal? Huang Renjun, I think I’ve had an influence on you.”

Rolling his eyes, Renjun releases Haechan. “Way to joke during a serious moment again.”

“You know it’s how I cope with the atmosphere, get too serious and it feels like I’m at a funeral or worse, a wedding.”

Renjun smiles; he’s glad Haechan is like this. 

“I can’t believe you were literally about to get transferred just for me though, who does that?” The class president leans over the desk again, looking down at Haechan now. The sun kissed skinned boy smirks up at him, and Renjun feels like he’s in trouble. Haechan’s eyes have this habit of speaking exactly what he wants, either that or Renjun can just read him well.

And Renjun kind of wants it too. 

Coming down slowly, Renjun closes his eyes as his lips meet with Haechan’s. It’s a tender moment where he feels like the whole world has stopped. His heart certainly hasn’t stopped, it beats faster and his mind whirls at the thought of finally being this close to Haechan. He doesn’t want to part from the soft lips, but they both separate and take a bit of air before gently colliding with one another again.

Two hands reach up and around Renjun’s neck, pulling him in even closer. The sweet scent of leather, lavender, and honey emits from the delinquent’s neck and Renjun moves his lips down from the boy’s to give small kisses upon his skin. The dots on his neck, which Renjun has spent lots of time studying and admiring, each receive a light peck before he returns back to Haechan’s mouth and they lock their lips once more. 

When time starts again and they pull away from one another, Renjun’s face feels cold where the warmth of Haechan is now absent. Haechan is blushing, and Renjun is sure he’s probably as well, but they smile at one another. 

Of course, Haechan breaks the moment with a bit of humor, “You’re gay, right?” 

Renjun closes his eyes and breathes in. “Would I have kissed you if I wasn’t?” 

“I don’t know.” Haechan shrugs. “Maybe that flag in your room meant you were just an ally.”

“Oh yeah, because all allies have multiple gay flags in their rooms.”

Haechan giggles. “Well then, thank _god_ you’re gay.”

“Hm, why's that?” Renjun teases.

“Because, I’m gay too and I like you. Can’t have a straight boyfriend now, can I?” His smoothness catches Renjun off guard and he almost falls off the desk. Haechan only uses that to further flirt, “Careful, don’t fall too hard for me or you’ll hurt yourself.” He winks, and Renjun inhales sharply.

“Lee Haechan!” Renjun attacks him with some tickles and hugs, but is still careful of his shoulder. Haechan giggles happily. When Renjun finally stops attacking him, he shakes his head. “You better not flirt with anyone else like that now that you have a boyfriend?”

Haechan grins at him. “Don’t worry. Those lines have been saved for you since day one, baby.”

His face heats up a bit and Renjun looks away. He plops down into the desk next to Haechan and opens a book to cover his blushing cheeks. Haechan plucks the book from his hands. 

“So, you like being called baby, noted.”

“I do _not_!” Renjun tries to deny, but Haechan cackles; he can see right through him. That and the clear fact the older’s cheeks are becoming an ever increasing shade of pink. “I can’t believe I have to be stuck in here all day with you.”

Haechan rests his head on his hand and stares over at Renjun, blinking his eyes innocently. “You better believe it, because this is about to be the best day of my life.” He’s smirking again, and Renjun pretends to ignore him. 

Inside though, everything is fluttering around, and for once, his mind is empty save for one thing. Haechan is all he can think about, and no matter who they were before, Renjun knows they fit perfectly together now.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> How was it? Did you enjoy this little adventure? Did you have a favorite part? 
> 
> Special thanks to my two amazing beta readers, [Jungwooed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jungwooed) and [Toojuns](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toojuns) ! They really made this work better than it originally was! :D
> 
> You can find me on twitter [@SmithEAdin](https://twitter.com/SmithEAdin)


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